I think that we will see the emergence of a psuedo Third Party, a fake "Moderate" Party

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

It will be to political parties as Politico is to political blogs and reporting, if you get my drift.

It will be well funded by names we already know but who will remain well buried in the background. The major stances will be fiscal conservatism, small government, strong national security, immigration reform(the Achilles heel they will never escape), tax reductions, little government regulation. In other words, Republicans but without the famous wedge issues.

It's obvious that they (you, know, "them") are doing the preliminary work for rolling this out in time for the next Presidential election if not before . The MSM meme is that the Repubs are too far right and the Dems are too far left. Gee, if we only had a Goldilocks Party in the middle.

Just my prediction based on my Spidey sense which is tingling off the charts.

[Occam Bandage]

1. Silly. Third parties never work.

And even if it did, a second Republican party would be the best thing anyone could do for the Dems. America is winner-take-all, and splitting the vote is a recipe for disaster. We'd probably get to 70 seats in the Senate if they tried that.

[TwilightZone]

2. Nope.

Ron Paul already tried that, though he is nowhere near moderate.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

9. Well, that's my point. And yet he had some small success.

I think the Tea Bag stuff is a dry run. Notice how the promoters always say that they are just as mad at Repubs as they at Dems?

[TwilightZone]

11. The Tea Bag stuff was seen as a joke by pretty much everyone.

If that's their basis for a new party, consider it stillborn.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

17. I think that was establishing a baseline.

i.e. "If we talk complete nonsense to idiots and convince them that they're angry about certain issues , how many can we turn out?"

And then they used the most ludicrous, cynical example - telling people who just received one of the largest tax cuts ever that they should be upset about the taxes of the wealthy.

[TwilightZone]

19. And these people differ from the GOP how, exactly?

You're talking about Republicans, not some phantom third-party. The vast majority of the attendees (and the funding for the parties themselves) were courtesy of the GOP.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

22. They differ very little. My hypotheses is that it is mostly GOP, but just in a different guise

I did say a "fake" new party. I really think they are that desperate. I also titled the OP as my opinion.

[TwilightZone]

23. My point is that they're Republicans.

They're not people leaving the GOP to start a new party. They were *funded* by the GOP.

[OmahaBlueDog]

21. No - I think the tea bag stuff was GOP strategists grasping for a meme

"Joe the Plumber" hasn't caught on outside a few party stalwarts. OK, we'll try to evoke the "Boston Tea Party." Nope, same problem -- still preaching to the choir.

[TwilightZone]

24. Agreed.

My post was mostly in jest. The Republicans are trying to remake themselves, not start a new party.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. You also realize that the other moderate third party to

emerge back in 1852 was the GOP

Here is a parallel that should give folks pause

The Party of Lincoln formed from formerly moderate, NORTHERN whigs

They were critical of the regional RIGHT WING party that was the Whigs

The parallels are actually stunning

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. yep. nt

[BlooInBloo]

4. I bet a brazillion dollars we don't, within the next decade.

Sheesh - people always going for the most over-the-top conclusions whenever possible.

[TwilightZone]

8. The number of "the Republican Party is dead...permanently" threads...

flowing around here is a bit mind-boggling.

[BlooInBloo]

15. Are these people like 12 years old or something? Selective amnesia?

[TwilightZone]

16. I have no idea.

Another thread was declaring that we need to create a new party to counter the Democrats now that the Republican Party is dead.

I guess we missed the memo.

[frogcycle]

6. take it to the bank

It will be a Madison Avenue "rebranding." If they could figure out how to keep the name and shed the nuttiest of the nutsos they would, but they can't. So it will be "New Coke" all over again.

[Auggie]

10. Good thought

Beat me to it

[Auggie]

7. I think they'll re-brand themselves, but under the same old GOP name

[rug]

12. It will be to politics what Xe is to mercenaries.

[DJ13]

13. It would make more sense if those names with funding

.....convinced the whack jobs currently in the gOP to splinter off into a third party instead of trying to form one that was viable.

The state laws are too (deliberately) restrictive towards allowing viable third party's.

[Warren Stupidity]

14. Unless there is a complete overhaul of the way we elect congress

and the president, third parties are irrelevant and counter-productive to their own goals. Winner takes all guarantees a two party system.

[drm604]

18. What they should do...

is start a new religio-fascist party. They can call it the American Family Party or something similar and use it to draw the loons away from the Republican Party.

If they can do that and rid themselves of the lunatics and return to their small government, economically conservative roots they may be able to attract a bunch of centrists and conservative Dems.

That's what they should do if they want to help themselves, but what I hope they do is continue along their current path of driving more and more people into the arms of the Democrats.

[OmahaBlueDog]

20. I see two scenarios

Scenario 1 is a lot like your scenario: Republical lites like Arnold, Charlie Crist, Rudy, and indys like Bloomberg join up. They want to be tough on security, but they admit the war in Iraq was a mistake. They want to respect traditional values, but be realistic about diversity. They want a smaller, pro business government, but they will embrace the mantle of sensible regulation. What these folks will do is form a party-within-the-party. It will be their equivalent to the DLC. They will turn away from the hard-right ideology of Rove and Gingrich, and instead look to bring in affluent moderates under the guise of "common sense government".

Scenario 2 is the Ron Paul Revolution. Ron has basically been behaving himself -- supporting Rick Perry's secessionist movement and knocking Obama, to be sure, but behaving. But, he has an organization and he can raise money like crazy. He also has attracted most of the bright young minds in the GOP. I could see Ron Paul's "libertarian lite" becoming a viable 3rd party -- not Nationally, but in the mountain West, Alaska, and parts of the Northeast -- I could see a party fronted by Ron winning congressional seats and laying groundwork for a serious 3rd party run in 2016.