The disintegration of the Republican party appears to more a little more imminent than previously thought. In the wake of the shutdown, government workers are back at the office, parks have reopened, and federal programs have been reinstated. Everything is slowly falling back into place for everyone, except for the GOP.
Because of the runaway train of lost elections, dips in public opinion, and government shutdowns, right-wing super-PACs are losing money from strong-arm conservative donors. Crossroads GPS, Heritage Action, and FreedomWorks, the Tea Party Koch Brother-funded super-PAC, are all experiencing dry wells from their wealthy, Republican donors.
Republican donors started to become frustrated with their candidates as they were “horrified in November after pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into campaigns for president and Congress with nothing to show for it.” During the 2012 campaigns, Crossroads GPS pumped $300 million into Republican candidates’ campaigns only to have Mitt Romney lose the White House and many other GOP candidates lose their elections.
But since then, donors have started to lose confidence in conservative, political thinkers and strategists and have been pulling their contributions as a result.
In what’s being called a “Frankenstein syndrome,” donors have created a proverbial monster in their Tea Party candidates as members of that faction “no longer fear the donors who put them into office and no longer believe they need them.”
Donor Al Hoffman, a former U.S. ambassador, spoke during the shutdown about the GOP and the renegade attitude that has consumed the Tea Party.
“So many in the House are hard-right reactionary tea party,” said Hoffman. “And those Republicans, it appears, are ready to self-immolate, and are willing to risk the destruction of the party by risking the destruction of the economy, by risking default.”
As far as the GOP’s self-destruction is concerned, Hoffman isn’t alone in that opinion.
For example, CEO Matt Kibbe of Koch-funded group FreedomWorks went on CSPAN and predicted that if the Republican party continues on this current wave of election losses and conflict within its ranks, a schism is “a real possibility.” That is, unless, they don’t suffer a loss in 2016 similar to the loss in 2012. But it’s looking very grim for the Republicans, and any success for the party in the near future is but a pipe dream at this point.
A schism would no doubt incredibly weaken the conservatives, but a split coupled with a severe loss in political contributions would cripple the Republicans. Their idealogical leaders and dreams have slowly dug themselves a grave that will eventually get filled if this progress continues.
But a political suicide by the Republicans is what this country might need. America is so badly wanting to forge ahead and move past the broken and antiquated policies of the conservatives, that a temporary death of the Republicans and the Tea Party could grant such a opportunity. Americans should be so lucky.
Josh is a writer and researcher with Ring of Fire. Follow him on Twitter @dnJdeli.