[Politics]

The Right in Shambles

Do you recall that just one short year ago, the GOP was still the Party of discipline? When we staged the battle of the bases last November, Republicans proved more adept at putting aside internicene squabbles and ticking the appropriate box. In the nauseating weeks that followed, we were subjected to a kind of triumphalism not witnessed in my lifetime. As if the act of winning were a kind of mathematical proof that the GOP's lies and misdemeanors were the stuff of reality.

So it's shocking to read this kind of thing now:

Anyone who's been paying attention will have felt forced to adjust his view of the conservative movement since then. The Republican takeover--which is to say, political success--dealt the mortal blow. Conservative institutions, conceived for combat, have in power become self-perpetuating, churning their direct-mail lists in pursuit of cash from the orthodontist in Wichita and the Little Old Lady in Dubuque, so the activists can continue to fund the all-important work of . . . churning their direct-mail lists. The current story of Jack Abramoff's lucrative self-dealing, involving as it does such movement stalwarts as Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist, may seem lunatic in its excesses, but the excesses aren't the point. The point is the ease with which the stalwarts commandeered the greasy machinery of Washington power. Conservative activists came to Washington to do good and stayed to do well. The grease rubbed off, too.

That was the Weekly Standard, by the way, not the Nation. Many stalwarts refuse to disbelieve, and continue to bang the administration drum. (In many cases, that's what they're paid to do.) But from David Brooks to Andrew Sullivan (hat tip for that Weekly Standard link), there are many who feel the Party's corruption and incompetence are finally too profound to ignore. (Good evidence of which may be the Roberts confirmation hearings, which, under a united and empowered GOP would be the Janice Rogers Brown hearings.)

The piece has sparked some debate. Ross Douthat agreed with it, but Ramesh Ponnuru dissented. (If you scroll up from Ramesh's post, you'll find Cornerites worrying over the question.) From a liberal's point of view, however, the answer to the question is evident in the debate. Is the conservative movement fracturing? Obviously. The existence of the debate--impossible to imagine even a year ago, as Giuliani and Schwarzenegger were kept off the RNC stage--proves the point.

[Posted originally at the American Street.]