A more ideologically cohesive GOP?

What conclusions, if any, can we draw from the Tea Party surge within the Republican Party?

Over the last two decades, it has been argued that the Republican Party have developed a much more cohesive ideology anchored around various strands of moral, economic, or social conservatism. Meanwhile the Democrats have struggled to develop a brand identity that is as strong and have, it seems, become a party that is about what the Republicans are note, rather than setting out a clear ideological agenda about how to tackle America’s social policy problems, such as the senior citizen ticking time bomb, a widening poverty gap between those on low-middle incomes and the super-rich. And this greater fractiousness can be seen in Congress where a large number of Democrats voted against Obama’s major policy proposals, while the GOP was much more unified.

But this does not mean that relations with the Republican Party are entirely without strain and it would be wrong to think that the Tea Party has hijacked the senior leadership of the GOP. Christine O’Donnell’s Senate primary victory in Delaware has made front page news throughout the world. Due in no small part to her being more photogenic I guess than your average politician. But be that as it may it is worthy of consideration since high-ranking Republican figures are less than pleased that the Tea Party insurgence has likely cost them victory in that state given its liberal tendencies.

If past is prologue it is likely that the Tea Party will be a short-lived phenomenon, a movement that has tapped into deep hostility among the electorate towards establishment politicians of both parties who have been seemingly unable to sort out the economy as quickly as voters would like. In other words, the political cycle is shorter than the economic cycle and while moderate conservartives have tacked to the right somewhat (viz McCain on immigration) in an attempt to absorb some of the Tea Party spillover, the vast majority (despite Fox News’s best attempts to egg activists on) of the electorate remain indifferent to what is going on in Washington, remain roughly in the centre, and if the “Godmother” of the Tea Party movement, Sarah Palin, does seal the 2012 nomination, an Obama landlslide would seem likely.

US parties are complex, fluid, and in a constant state of flux. But this can only be expected in a nation as geographically and demographically diverse as the USA, and when we build in a cultural mistrust of government that dats back to colonial days, one thins is for sure, they are never boring.

As a further aside, it is well worth considering this snippet about GOP candidate positions on climate change…here

Does this support the idea that there has been an ideological resurgence within the GOP, or is it simply short term political pragmatism at a time when other issues are elevated onto a higher plance????