For some time, I had been telling my friends and family that the way to win an election this decade against the George Bush/Dick Cheney/Karl Rove machine was to adapt the Republican tactics to our benefit. In short, identify and apply a wedge issue to lift and separate the religious extremist element from the neocon element of the GOP.
As with the Democratic coalition developed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his followers beginning in 1932 that basically lasted until the 1970's, the Grand Old Party consists of elements that are hostile and antithetical to each other.
FDR had somehow included American blacks and Southerners together in order to attain and maintain power. However, eventually, Richard Nixon and Kevin Phillips learned how to drive a wedge between these two groups with the issues of school desegregation and public assistance that resulted in eight years of Nixon and/or Ford, twelve years of Reagan and/or George H.W. Bush, and eight years of George W. Bush. In contrast, during that time period, Democrats were limited to four years of Jimmy Carter and eight years of Bill Clinton.
More below the flip...
The Republican Party consists primarily of religious extremist groups that are not monolithic and neoconservatives.
The religious extremist element of the GOP includes Mormons (primarly in the Rocky Mountain states and California), Baptists (primarily in the South and Plains states), and other evangelicals, fundamentalists, and pentacostals. The core beliefs of each of these subgroups include the sanctification of the believer by his or her relationship with Jesus Christ and/or God and each believer is therefore an agent of the Deity.
In theonarcissism, any and practially all actions on the part of the believer are in the name of the Lord. On the micro scale, one of the major goals of the religious extremist groups is prosilitization, i.e., conversion of non-believers to believer status. On the macro scale, the ultimate focus is to create a theocracy in the United States where the will of the Lord is promulgated in the laws and governance of the land.
Prominant religious extremists including James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Billy Graham of the Billy Graham Evangelical Association, Franklin Graham of Samaritan's Purse, Pat Robertson of the Christian Broadcasting Network, and leaders in the National Association of Evangelicals. The mission statement of NAE is (http://www.nae.net/index.cfm?FUSEACTION=nae.mission):
The mission of the National Association of Evangelicals is to extend the kingdom of God through a fellowship of member denominations, churches, organizations, and individuals, demonstrating the unity of the body of Christ by standing for biblical truth, speaking with a representative voice, and serving the evangelical community through united action, cooperative ministry, and strategic planning.
Now, 'extension of the kingdom of God' would also include promulgation of religious extremist beliefs and practices to any group or agency not part of the religious community, including the neoconservative movement. The religious extremists will utilize non-believing agents to further their agenda but will not view them as really a part of the community.
Aha! An inherent tension is identified.
Now, the neoconservative movement in the Republican Party has long involved a political philosophy and strategy that rejected the social liberalism, moral relativism, and countercultural influences of 1960's liberals. The hallmark of the neocon movement is conservative values such as free market, limited social welfare programs, and so-called traditional moral values.
Key players in the formation of the neocon movement included Irving Kristol, father of William Kristol, and Norman Podhoretz, editor of Commentary Magazine from 1960 to 1995. One of the tipping points for the fledling movement was the shift rightward of liberals in the late 60's and early 70's. The neocon movement has demonstrated its intent and ability to collar the religious extremists and to use them to its purposes.
Since the election of Bush in 2000, the religious extremists have been chomping at the bit to achieve their religious agenda. Problem is, Bush and his cronies never really believed in their religious goals. They only believed in perpetuating their own power. There has been no attempt to amend the Constitution to ban abortion. There was only a faint-hearted attempt to amend the Constitution to ban Marriage Equality, in part undercut by the opposition of one Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) who believed more in the sanctity of the Constitution rather than the sanctity of life.
In general, the religious extremists were sitting out election 2008, except for the support proffered to Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR), aka, Rev. Huckabee. As an evangelical preacher, Huckabee believe in the agenda of the religious extremists and promised to enact it for them. Problem was that mainstream Republicans were not enamored with him or that agenda. Tension mounts.
Enter the soon-to-be late, great Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK). McCain hoped fervently, yeah, prayed fervently, that Palin would invigorate the religious extremists and his moribund campaign in August 2008. Sure, Palin ignited the theocratic base with her membership in that rogue Pentacostal Church, her opposition to Marriage Equality and equal rights for gays and lesbians, her opposition to a woman's right to choose, and her evangelical cred. Neocons too salivated, smelling victory, albeit, briefly.
Unfortunately for McCain, Palin, and the neocons, Palin was neocon in superficiality only. She did not even know what the Bush Doctrine was. She dispensed funds to Alaskans in the manner of the freest of socialists. She knew how to aim, but not how to shoot.
Now, as the McCain campaign unwinds and enters its death spiral, Palin is running for President. Election 2012. The theocons and religious extremists expect that she will carry their banner into the mid-term elections and then into the general in 2012. They snipe at McCain and his staff as being the problem.
Meanwhile, McCain and his staffers are distancing from Palin, beginning to point fingers at her for being the problem. Nevermind that Palin is just being Palin and that it was McCain's choosing, not the choice, that so doomed the stain campaign. Neocon columnists are now pointing to the beauty queen as the loss factor.
For Democrats, what to do? Well, what follows is a possible primer for a guarantee of a 20-year rule from eight years of President Obama to eight years of President Bill Richardson or President Hillary Clinton to four or more years of the next:
(1) Drive that wedge between theocon and neocon, highlighting at times how great some of the neocon values were, but such a shame that Palin brought the ticket down.
(2) Drive that wedge..., highlighting at times how exciting and novel the Palin campaign was, but such a shame that McCain was so erratic and temperamental. He should have let Palin be Palin. Seems to me that to a limited extent, Obama and Biden have begun this course of action. Obama talked Palin up during the final debate rather than thrashing the concept of her. Obama talks the talk of the religious extremists without their horrifying theocratic talk. He can enamor himself and his Administration to Palin and her followers, which will infuriate the neoconservatives. Think Bill Clinton's talk and approach that appealed to the same group and alienated the neocons.
(3) Develop the wedge between the different religious extremist groups. The Mormons hate and distrust the Catholics who hate and distrust them. Catholics do not see Mormons as being Christians, only seeing them as well as the Jehovah's Witnesses as being cults. The Mormons and Catholics hate and distrust the Baptists who in turn hate and distrust them. Baptists see themselves as being the true believers, born again. According to Baptists, Mormons and most Catholics are not born again. The orthodox and conservative Jews hate and distrust the Mormons, Catholics, and Baptists, realizing that they only want to make them "True Jews" (as per Jews for Jesus). Mormons, Catholics, and Baptists only want to convert the Jews to add them to the kingdom of heaven.
So, a focus on key personalities like Palin, George F. Will, Christopher Buckley, Christopher Hitchens, and others will make the other camp crazed. Best to poke and prod them to violence against each others so as to negate the possibility of them recouping any time soon. Let them eat their young.