GOP Is Split On What Change They Want

After they got embarrassed in the last election, Republican leaders decided their party needed to change. They even produced a report on what kind of change was needed to reach out to more voters -- like moderating their views on immigration reform and same-sex marriage, allowing them to reach out to Hispanics and young voters (both of which voted heavily Democratic). Unfortunately for the GOP, their members in Congress don't agree. They have continued doing what they were doing, and some even want to move further to the right.

The question is -- what do their base voters think? Well, a new survey from the Pew Research Center looked at that. They polled 497 Republicans (and GOP leaners) between July 17th and 21st (with a margin of error of 5.1 points). And what they found was that the party's base voters are just as split as their leaders and elected officials.

Nearly all Republicans think their party has to make changes -- and about two-thirds of them (67%) think those must be major changes. The problem comes in what kind of change is needed. About 40% of Republicans think their leadership is right, and the party needs to moderate its policies to reach out to a wider range of voters. But an even larger group in the party (54%) want to do the opposite -- move even further to the right.

This larger group, led by the teabaggers, fundamentalists, and racists, want to keep an America run by privileged whites -- and they think they can do that by passing laws to keep minorities (and young people) from voting, and by marginalizing those groups through gerrymandering congressional districts. And many in Congress are listening to them, since they are the recipients of those gerrymandered districts.

There is a war going on in the GOP over what direction the party needs to take to become relevant again in national elections, and right now the tea bagger element in the party has the upper hand (because they control who gets elected in the gerrymandered GOP districts). But demographics are working against them. This country is getting less white with each passing year, and nothing will change that -- and trying to keep minorities and the young from voting won't work for very long (if at all).

The GOP does need to change. But the change they are going with right now will just hasten their party's irrelevance in national elections. That's a shame, because I think a democracy needs more parties -- not less. But they, by giving power to the teabaggers, have chosen their path.

Here is a breakdown of the teabaggers in the party from that same survey:

The typical teabagger is male, over 50, white, protestant, and lives in the suburbs. I doubt that surprises anyone.