There are as many articles written about the possibility of a new GOP candidate or a brokered convention now than articles about the race itself. There is a reason why caucus and primary turnout among the Republicans is so low--this clown car stinks to high heaven, and Republican voters can smell it. Whether we are talking about the smelly Santorum calling on people to avoid sending their kids to college, Romney bragging about the Cadillacs his wife keeps in the garage of two of their several homes, Gingrich pontificating about the newest thing that is "the most profound", or Ron Paul giggling about the person denied medical services because they are too poor, a good portion of GOP voters are turned off.
And they do not have many alternatives beyond this weird group. Jeb Bush--just the name is a loser in and of itself. Palin? Even worse than the Clown Car. Christie? Angry and incoherent--better suited for a Hollywood movie role than the presidency. Daniels? The architect of Bush's whacky budgets. They've got nothing, and it irks them,and you can't beat Something with Nothing. The GOP is indeed the Lost Party.
News travels too fast these days, and it is so hard to hide the reality from the masses behind a smokescreen of hate-mongering or blatant lies. It is very revealing when one of the principal candidates is actually telling parents, in all seriousness, to hold their kids back from getting a higher education so that their minds will not be exposed to different mental models and theories about why things are the way they are.
These four remaining, pitiful candidates actually represent the four fissures within the Republican Party, and the degree of attacking and carping going on among these four candidates is more like a brutal war in divorce court than a competition of ideas within a party that has some common principles. The emerging thought leader for this group is Charles Murray, whose new book "Coming Apart" reveals more about the wrong-headed thinking of the Republicans and Libertarians than it does about American society itself.
I see these four candidates representing four irreconcilable groups. Romney, representing the corporatists, what the deluded Murray himself terms the "Overeducated Elitist Snobs". Romney, more than anyone on the American scene, is the poster boy for this group. Santorum is the would-be inheritor of the Reagan Democrats as well as the Catholic right wing. Remember what Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito have in common? All right-wing Catholics. Gingrich in all of his pomposity and bloviation still understands that his only electoral base is among the most racist sectors of the southern GOP. Hence his lone victory in South Carolina and his retreat to Georgia as his last bastion of refuge. Paul represents the party's libertarian lunatic fringe who envision an anarchic Ayn Randian world of toll roads, no taxes, and isolationism.
These four groups dislike and distrust each other, and even a common hatred for Barack Obama is not enough to get them to cooperate.
One can envision a massive GOP loss this fall, with possible change of majority in the House of Representatives and Democratic gains in the Senate as the Republican Party spins further out of control. A Romney candidacy would lead to a profound funk in the three other fissures, with the key players sitting on the sidelines awaiting 2016. I would anticipate a reorganization of the Republican Party, as they continue to wage war among these four irreconcilable camps. As Obama moves into his second term in this scenario, there would be opportunities for the Democratic Party to move more in a populist, non-elite, non-corporate direction and to more boldly build a sustainable majority for the future.
It is time for us to mobilize and go all out. This is a rare opportunity to exploit a deeply weakened Republican Party, as they continue to move toward their Perfect Storm.