Everyone's stupid when they don't agree with you. Got it.
The most interesting thing about the Republicans is how little their behavior has changed from their founding, even with the change in beliefs or constituents.
And no Mr. P, that is not a knock.
It's why the policies of the two parties ultimately are the same and why they are looking so similar today, there is a blurring between these traditional substructures (or temperaments) of the parties going on.
What makes a Republican?
- A periodic revolutionary frisson going back to its founding and seen periodically like when Grant successfully purged the Radical Republicans or Harding/Coolidge the Progressive, Goldwater the Northeastern Elite, Reagan the Isolationists...the Gringrich Contract with America was a failed revolution to purge the Christians
- Heresy and Non-Conformity are required. It's why so many Libertarians find a better home with the Republicans than the Democrats. And why the Republicans have so many dissenters who define themselves as Not-Democrats instead of Republicans. Something tells me this is Mr.P if you scratch that surface hard enough.
- At the same time, there is a lot more conflict about what is the actual party, and you can't be passive or conciliatory about it- if you got a position and you think it's the position the party should adopt, you must get in the ring and conquer. There is no pussyfooting, it's eat or be eaten. That's why the vacuous thought the the Republicans are monolithic gets thrown around. From the outside it looks like that but because they have some sort of Spartan mentality where they go to war with each other than go to war with the opposite party and you must be hearty to survive.
Sometimes, I look at Romney, and think that most of his problem is some sort of cultural remembrance of his father being essentially tossed from the party during the Goldwater purge. And since Romney isn't a fighter (though that temper is certainly unbecoming,) he is a viewed as a wimpy loser and an artifact.
- Which produces very empty politicians when it comes crunch time. None of these people could survive a Republican primary without saying outrageous things that have all the sound and fury of an idiot or trying to act iconic so they don't have to actually be anything. This last part is a very similar problem to the one Democrats have, though the steps leading up to it are slightly different because of the temperaments that the Democrats represent.
Look at how Mr.P talks about winning and losing elections like it's the Battle of the Bulge. These are life and death victories for the Republican, so he is more adept at changing strategies or acting rather Machivellian about actual beliefs. The general (politician) can give platitudes to the troops and be satisfied with it.
The Democrat? The Democrat talks about winning and losing elections like it's the white smoke coming out of the chimney at the Vatican. There is an orthodoxy that Democrats are supposed to follow which incorporates (to an extent where a candidate is expected to represented contrariety beliefs) but it allows for many nations (interest groups) to be blessed into the universal party. So when it is non-election time, you have a variety of groups with different beliefs who commune under the Democrat banner and then in theory they come together under their universal Kirks. Of course, Democrats, when dissatisfied, or don't feel placated enough, will stay home and the church suffers the loss of one of her children to apostasy.