Separating the Right

Carpetbagger suggests that the Foley Sex scandal has broken the GOP into two parts, saying:
And just as an aside, it's also worth noting how conservatives have broken up into two camps over the last week — one that's disgusted with the GOP's handling of the scandal and believes the party needs responsible leadership for a change, and another that will embrace fantastical conspiracy theories involving Dems, Soros, the media, and the "velvet mafia."

I’m sure the lines aren’t neatly divided, as many of these dopes will accidentally pick the wrong side, but for the most part, I think these divisions will prove to be the difference between conservatives and Republicans. Some Republicans are diehard conservatives who are slowly getting disgusted with how the political apparatus is screwing up their policy goals, and other Republicans are diehard Republicans who are slowly getting disgusted with turncoat conservatives who won’t support the party at all costs.

For example, the Washington Times is conservative, and are disgusted with what the GOP has linked them to. So they’ve demanded Hastert’s resignation. Limbaugh, who has the background of a conservative and still leans that way, has long since learned his lesson and, while occasionally taking snipes at the GOP, will toe any line necessary. His main goal isn’t necessarily to support the GOP, but mainly to convince conservatives that Dems are evil and so they should hold their noses and keep voting Republican. And that’s exactly what his strategy in the Foley case has shown. He’s demonizing the Dems.

But it’s not just this scandal. These lines have always existed and libs really needed to do a better job of prying these two groups apart. They don’t have the same interests and lumping them all together in our attacks is the same mistake Republicans have committed by lumping all Muslim extremists together. They’ll stay together as long as their interests converge, and it’s our job to see that that doesn’t happen. But lumping them all together and attacking them as one will only serve to keep them together.

And the key is to get at the conservatives. The Republicans will never go away and will always keep the fight, because they have no other choice. And the fact that they became Republican is reason enough to know that they’ll enjoy that fight. They don’t care what they’re supporting, just as long as they win.

But the conservatives are now really looking for excuses to bail, hide-out for a few years, before reemerging into the political arena. We really need to do more to hasten that process, and a big loss in the mid-terms is quite likely to have that effect. The only thing keeping them tied to the GOP is victory. We need to deprive them of that while reminding them of how badly the GOP has abused their support. At this point, that’s pretty easy to do. We just need to remember to do it.