The GOP's dilemma

I remarked some time ago that the GOP was treading on dangerous ground in encouraging the far fringe element in their base. One aspect of the tea party tantrums that went pretty much unnoticed is while they were clearly anti-Obama and anti-Democratic party, they weren't pro-Republican for the most part. And sure enough, there's now a growing movement among this crowd to challenge the "ideologically impure" GOPers as measured by the shoutragers' yardstick.

Steve Benen gets the quote of the day on this story.

Yes, the recovery-opposing, nominee-blocking, ACORN-hunting, Fox News-following, health care-rejecting, gay bashing, global warming-denying, scorched earth-raging Republican Party isn't far enough to the right for the Teabggers.

As Steve notes, the angry conservatives have every right to "try to take over their party" and drive it to the fringes, just as we on the left seek to pull our politicians in the other direction. But it leaves the GOP with bad choices all around. Loud though they may be, the shoutragers are a minority of Americans. Not enough of them to carry an election but the Republicans can't afford to lose them since they sold their souls to this crowd at the expense of alienating their moderates and the intellectuals.

Therein lies the fatal flaw of the anti-government strategy. The GOP apparently forgot that they're part of the government too. Or maybe they were just hoping everyone else forgot.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]