Last night's Iowa Republican caucuses were an interesting political exercise that may in the long run prove to be quite meaningless. However, I was struck by how well the outcome of the caucuses mirrors what I perceive to be the current state of the Republican Party. The three frontrunners: Romney, Paul, and Santorum, each represents a particular demographic within the Republican Party, and the fact that the three of them essentially split the vote provides an illuminating glimpse into the current state of the GOP.
Santorum is a "social conservative," code for moralistic hatemonger, who believes gay people want to marry goats, the pill is murder, and Bibles should replace science textbooks. He got the unified vote of the far-right evangelical base of the GOP - a base that had been hitherto split between Santorum, Bachmann, and Perry. His sharp rise to prominence shows that this constituency was desperate to unite behind a champion. I'd call this the "hate" wing of the Republican Party.
Paul is a libertarian, code for Ayn Rand worshiping super-capitalist. He wants to privatize everything, believes poor people should be left to die on the street, and that anything that interferes with a corporation's right to exploit its workers, such as child labor laws, disability laws, civil rights laws, safety laws, are all unconstitutional. He got the vote of the libertarian, government-hating, fences make good neighbors wing of the Republican party, whose only other choice was Gary Johnson, a candidate who couldn't get the attention of anyone. I'd call this the "greed" wing of the Republican Party.
Romney, of course, represents the rest of the Republican Party - generically moralistic, more afraid of skyrocketing deficits than of skyrocketing economic inequality, militaristic, nationalistic, pro-gun, and pro-business. His voters have to be more concerned with winning than anything else, because Romney hasn't taken a coherent position on any subject that he hasn't then subsequently argued against. Romney is the John McCain of this election - he's a political machine, and his handlers and analysts pull his switches one way or the other depending on how the political winds are blowing. I'd call this the "fear" wing of the Republican Party.
Thus, the three candidates who won Iowa represent the three wings of the Republican Party: hate, greed, and fear. It's an illuminating look at the current state of one of our two major political parties, and we'll have to see how doth it bode for November.