Like the Democrats, the Republican party is an amalgam of constituencies. Fundamentalists, Neo Know Nothings, Chamber of Commerce types, property rights activists, domesticated Libertarians, and longtime party hacks have all found a home in the GOP, but is it accurate to assume that they all like one another?
In the past, Democratic strategists assumed that if they had the right message and enough money they could squeak by with narrow victories in marginal districts. They neglected the corrosive effect of wedge issues the Democratic base, e.g., anti-immigration rhetoric and union people, abortion and Catholics, family values talk and parents. To start winning big, we Democratic activists need to hold our collective noses and begin identifying and using wedge issues to our advantage. Hence my title, "How to give the GOP a Wedgie." I hope fellow Kossacks will add to the list.
(1) Pit the churchies against the anti-immigrationists. In the Roman Catholic Church there is a strong institutional memory of the Know Nothings. The Know Nothings were a nativist movement in the 1850s formed to oppose the aspirations of Irish Catholic immigrants. With each new wave of immigration (Italians, Poles, Slovenians) there would be a new iteration of alarmist rhetoric with the same themes: crime, job-taking, political violence, disease, etc. So if someone is an ethnic Catholic there is a good chance that there is a family story of an encounter with an anti-immigrant bigot. Interestingly enough, Denver's current archbishop, usually a thorn in the side of progressives, is holding a series of town meetings in an attempt to undo anti-immigrant bias in his flock. It's time to remind Catholics that just a couple generations ago their forbearers were strangers in a new land and subject to the same sort of abuse that is now being dished out by Neo Know Nothings like Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton). Some added sauce: Tancredo is a North Denver Italian who ditched his Catholicism for megachurch Protestantism when he moved to the suburbs.
(2) Pit anti-immigrationists against the Chambers of Commerce. The dirty little secret of the immigration debate is that many businesses depend on cheap, illegal labor to keep expenses low and profits high. Yet among the Know Nothing right there is a desire to punish not only the illegal immigrant but the boss who profits off illegal labor. The Neo Know Nothings should be allowed to succeed very publicly in their attempts to increase penalties for hiring illegal workers. Then the anti-immigrationists will be glad handing Chamber of Commerce types whose costs of doing business just went up.
(3) Pit the Chamber of Commerce against property rights activists. Another dirty little secret is the extent to which rugged free enterprise types depend on various government subsidies and tax breaks to make their deals profitable. In Kelo v City of New London (2005) the Supreme court held by a 5-4 majority that municipalities could use eminent domain to transfer property from one private owner to another. E.g., federal law permits your city to condemn your house and transfer the property to Wal-Mart for a parking lot. Stand back and enjoy watching the property rights Republicans inveigh against corporate welfare and dig the Chamber of Commerce types sweating out their profit margins.
(4) Pit the Libertarians against the churchies. "Since when should the state be in the business of administering the sacrament of Holy Matrimony. Privatize and let a thousand flowers bloom. If the Baptists want to solemnize the union of (opposite sex) first cousins, let them. If the Unitarians want to bless a polyamorous triad, so what. Let's get the government out of our private lives."
(5) Pit the churchies against the party hacks. One of the consequences of the GOP having been in power too long is that they've become accustomed to doing deals and sailing close to the wind. What works in the smoke filled room is not necessarily the sort of thing that can be extolled in the pulpit. Take, for example what's happening to Tom DeLay's protégé Rep. Marilyn Musgrave in Colorado's 4th Congressional district. A progressive group called Coloradans for Life is running radio ads calling Musgrave out for her support of a Delay-Abramoff bill that set up sweat shops on the US-controlled Marianas Islands. According to the Coloradans for life website: "Women who worked in the Marianas Islands' factories were tricked into signing contracts by being told they would work in `U.S. factories' and some faced forced abortions when they became pregnant. Marilyn helped make this possible." Viola! The social conservative turned into an abortion-enabler.