The day after the government shutdown was ended and default
on our national debt was avoided; Bing.com’s headline news story was of “Civil
War in the Republican Party: Business Versus the Tea Party.” The story noted that the Tea Party was
planning to target every Republican running for reelection in 2014 who had
voted for the bill to keep our country solvent.
The story also noted that the National Chamber of Business was going to
support those moderate Republicans against any Tea Party preliminary
challenger.
Just the fact that there will be unnecessary, hard-fought
preliminaries will hurt the Republicans’ chances in the general elections. In addition to squandering money that would
be better spent fighting their Democrat opponents, the blood drawn during the primaries
will hurt the Republicans.
But, the real damage to the Republican brand is the
no-compromise, my way or the highway reputation that it now carries. The Tea Party is proud of this reputation –
but it is not how Americans want their government to work. It is exactly the cause of our government not
working. While the Tea Party attempted
to portray President Obama as intransigent during the government shutdown, most
Americans saw the Republican Party as the obstructionists. The polls do not lie. Republicans have been damaged. Unfortunately, most Americans do not
understand the difference between the Tea Party and the Republican Party. How could they? The Republican Party has allowed the Tea Party
to take control of the Republican Party.
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