When I hear Republicans talk about each other it seems to me that there is very little difference between how Republicans feel about Republicans and how Democrats feel about Republicans. In the last Republican primary we saw candidates from within the same part tear each other to shreds on everything from religious to economic views. And it made me wonder, “Is this the best way to approach an election?” By the time that a candidate is finally chosen you have already heard so many negative things about him, you do not really even support him, and the bashing from the other party has not even started yet. But then it hit me, maybe the problem is not the way we choose the candidate for the party, but the party itself.
Maybe the problem is that the views held by members of this party are so different that they really do just want an excuse to tear the others apart. One can look at the ideologies of the so called tea party candidates and compare them with someone like Mitt Romney, and see some very obvious differences, take health care for example. This leads me to believe that the main reason why the Republican Party did so poorly in the last election is because of this dislike for each other. If this party does not believe in its own members, how in the world are we supposed to believe in them?
Well, the answer is simple, we do not. Mitt Romney received three million fewer votes than John McCain did. This is significant if one looks at two things. One, in 2008 when John McCain ran, everyone on both sides of the isle was unhappy with President Bush when the economy was tanking, and most people no longer saw why we were in a war. Two, Barack Obama ran a very successful ground game, he was charismatic and his slogan about change at such a low point in this nation easily caused more people to vote for him then would normally vote Democrat. However, that is not true of this election; our economy is not any better now than it was four years ago, and most people are not satisfied with the president’s performance, yet the Rrepublican vote did not turn out. So, the question is not “is the Republican Party in trouble?”, but “why is it in trouble?” More than likely it is great divide that exists between the establishment GOP and tea partiers. The dislike for within the party has led to a dislike by the general public, and if the problem is not fixed soon, it is not likely that they will ever regain the power they once had.