A trend seems to have developed amongst the official potential GOP candidates for the 2012 presidential election. That trend, as observed by the Associated Press, is that “Republican candidates are drifting rightward on a range of issues, even though more centrist stands might play well in the 2012 general election. On energy, taxes, health care and other topics, the top candidates hold positions that are more conservative than those they espoused a few years ago.”
For example, Mitt Romney, the most likely candidate for the GOP right now, has pulled a Grumpy McCain and “rejected his earlier stands supporting abortion rights, gun control and gay rights.”
Tim Pawlenty’s downplay of his 2006 views on government placing “guardrails” to prevent certain “interests” from becoming too powerful is another example.
This trend of the right to go righter is due to the influence of the Tea Party movement, according to the article. Considering the article also points out how important independent voters will be in the election, that statement makes sense to me.
Senator John McCain did the same thing when he ran. Whether the result of the hard right’s influence or just a regular occurrence, it’s not a good direction for the GOP to go.
Granted, with the president acting more as a moderate than the ultra left-wing liberal the Republicans had feared, the natural counter would be extreme right-wing conservatism. This seems to be their train of thought in addition to appeasing the Tea Party voter base, which is the real problem now.
What the Republicans need is a candidate who can grab the independent voters and the Democrats upset with the President’s actions and policies. This might alienate the right wing portions of the party, but appeasing the right-wingers of the GOP didn’t work too well in 2008, so I don’t see it helping much this time around. If anything, it might drive the more moderate Republicans further away.
The Republicans face a challenge in the 2012 election. If they want to take a serious shot at it, they need to be realistic. We at least need Republicans on different ideological levels of the right wing spectrum. The point of a republic is to have some variety in our elected officials. If people can’t get it
from one party, they’ll go to a party that has it — and that might be the Democratic Party.
