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In reply to the discussion: That Rumbling Sound You Hear Is The Republican Base Fracturing Apart--My Red Neighbor Turned Purple [View all]markpkessinger
(8,392 posts)And as for the fracturing GOP base, it has been a long time coming. For 30+ years now, Republican orthodoxy has been defined by an ever-increasing number of ideological litmus tests. I mean, up to a point, sure, a party has to decide what it stands for and what it doesn't (ideally, probably less by way of litmus tests than by agreement on general principles). But the GOP has continually heaped new ideological litmus tests upon old ones. The temptation is understandable enough: for a time, as indeed we have seen, these tests can create a party unity that can be quite a formidable political force. But it's like a drug: the wave(s) of early political success achieved by such enforced party unity can create the impression that one can continue to do more of the same, achieving ever greater success. But at a certain point, it becomes self-defeating -- eventually the circles becomes so tightly drawn that any advantage created by this political unity is offset by the number of people you have excluded from your circle. Seems to me there's a moral in that story for any political party in any time.