Momentarily setting aside any schadenfreude from seeing Republicans engage in a circular firing squad (usually a Democratic pastime), it seems this latest destructive binge could have a far more deleterious effect on those who honestly see themselves as conservative who might otherwise engage Democrats in constructive discussions. Why could this be important? Read below the squiggle....
Firstly, I believe each of the major parties are more of an amorphous mass of money, opportunism, and ambition with a bouquet of ideology. (Otherwise how could people like Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman find a home in the Democratic party.) Having said that, I remain a Democrat with a hope that it can rediscover its glory as the party of Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Johnson.
The Republican Party is a different kettle of fish. Although I am not holding my breath to hear them resonate with the voices of Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, the best they can do is morph Ronald Reagan. However, even re-constituted Reagan (at least in his own words) would represent progress.
What has happened to the Republican party is a weird entwining of Christian fundamentalist (aka American Taliban) religion, rationalistic solipsisms of Ayn Rand, and unhindered laissez faire capitalism. Nothing new here as it has been oft said in DK that the Republicans are in their own universe--suspending the laws of cause and effect (though entropy still seems to work).
What is nakedly simple is the fact that in order for any consensus in government to occur there must be dialog. In order to have dialog one must concede that the opposing side has the right to exist and a measure of validity to its point of view. This provides the context and traction that each side needs in order to reach compromise.
What is abundantly clear is that the voice of the Republican party is increasingly that of the ideologues and radicals. (Nothing new here, either). The Democratic party has had its dance with ideologues. However it is far too diverse and anti-monolithic to hold onto ideology with any tenacity.
The Republican party obviously saw that its minority status and size would continue to shrink and thus grabbed onto the lifeline provided by ideologues. St. Ron thought that he could manage the absolutists, without disfiguring the party.
However, these ideologues that now control the Republican party cannot function in a heterogeneous conservative environment. The impure must be ejected. This is much more akin to the battles of the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks of an earlier era.
It is not a utopian delusion but a toxic mix of fundamentalism that has overtaken the party like "kudzu--" squeezing out opposing views and overrunning the landscape. Although many of the views held by these fundamentalists have been disproved or discredited, they hold sway over the fervent. Some of the characteristics and qualities of this absolutist minority currently in control of the Republican party are: misogynistic, white supremacist, millennialist, homophobe, pederast, incest, anti-Muslim, social Darwinist, Christian fascism, and of course rational objectivists.
This is not just a potpourri of "worst" characteristics (though they are pretty damnable) but of behaviors and and attitudes modeled by the various leaders who disparage the "old school" Republicans who want to negotiate with the Democrats.
Hypocrisy, especially in politics and religion, is nothing new. However, the proponents of the "new" Republican party, while eschewing the old conservatives, model behaviors and attitudes that corrupt and send the party deep into the wilderness.
Incapable of dialog, they choose to sink with the party platform regardless of its toll on the commonwealth or members of its own party. As I see it, either the Republicans must face a Thermodorean movement that reasserts moderation, or conservatives who believe in dialog with opposing parties must form their own party.
As for the Democrats--trying to engage the Republican party in dialog will continue to prove fruitless, as the "dialogists" in the Republican party are not in power. Although they should continue to encourage moderates to buck the leadership--they cannot hope for traction from an opposition that eschews dialog. It would be in the Democrats long term interest to encourage new leadership within the Republican party or recognition of a new conservative party that will negotiate in this universe.