Potential Republican Nominees Run On A Platform of Crazy

    

We expect it from Palin. We expect it from Bachmann. We expected it from Trump. We even expected it, somewhat, from Huckabee, but when mainstream conservatives start touting right-wing fringe ideology, the Republican party has a problem. So far this race we've seen some formerly grounded individuals say some pretty startlingly radical things in order to appeal to relative minority Tea Party base. It's become painfully clear that the Republican party has lost its center, and when the party's nomination hopefuls swing wide-right during this campaign cycle, it not only hurts their personal credibility, but further damages the integrity of the party.

     The latest example of Tea Party pandering comes from Tim Pawlenty (affectionately referred to as "T-Paw" by his constituency; inner-city gangsta rappers). Recently Pawlenty told a press conference that he would "sunset all federal regulations", except those that were reviewed and voted on by congress every three to five years. In other words, every regulation of private industry, environmental protection, food production, pharmaceutical standards, and workplace safety; every federal regulation would be constantly cycled through congress. Not a particular type of regulation, or even those form a particular regulatory agency, but ALL of them. Essentially, under Pawlenty congress would become one massive regulatory review agency with no time left over to do the actuall business of running the country.

     Pawlenty's recent foray into Wonderland (need I point out the Tea Party connection?) is almost surely the result of his opponents call for the dissolution of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Recently both Gingrich and Bachmann called for the agency's end, primarily because they felt that its clean air and clean water regulations could be made more cheaply through some other government agency. This, despite the fact that clean air and water regulations are a small (but important) piece of the EPA's regulatory pie. "Throwing the baby out with the bathwater", comes to mind, and is a common Tea Party tactic. (Government shutdown, anyone?) Pawlenty took it one step farther, wanting to throw the bathwater out by knocking the house down. It should be mentioned that the Koch brothers dollar-doling crosshairs have been set on the EPA for some time now, so it's not surprising that the Republo-crats went after it.

     In 2008, Pawlenty, Gingrich, Romney, and Huntsman were still firmly in the conservative mainstream. They held climate change to be a big problem and backed a cap and trade system of tracking carbon emissions. They supported water and air regulations (albeit riddled with loopholes) and there was no inkling of global warming denial. (It ain't just a riverbed in the desert...yet.) However, the recent campaign cycle is bringing dramatically different messages from these formerly grounded politicians. Gingrich now questions whether global warming is real. Huntsman told The Telegram that, althoug he still maintains his past positions, it "simply isn't the right time to act on his convictions".

     The lone voice in the ruins of what used to be a thriving Republican center seems to be that of Mitt Romney. He received some vocal criticism for his comments that global warming "may be" in part due to human activity. He's also stood behind his 2008 position of an energy cap & trade, which many other Republicans are now discrediting as too hurtful to private business (the multi-national, multi-billion dollar variety). What's the result of Romney's centrist sit-in? Top polling in a field by which most Republicans say they feel underwhelmed.

     According to a recent poll conducted by Yale's Project on Climate Change Communication, 81% of voting Republicans support government funding of research for renewable energy sources, and 85% of voting Republicans believe developing renewable energy resources should be a "very high" priority for the U.S. government. Even 50% of voting Republicans say they feel that global warming should be a "high priority" for the U.S. government. Why then, on an issue that many of their constituents agree, are these candidates swinging so far right? This relatively small, but vocal (and media-magnetized) group of ultra-conservative Tea Party types are managing to control much of the narrative. This is no doubt fueled by the Fox (faux) news cycle, Limbaugh, and other conservative talking heads that promote these ideologies as the party's basic principles. The Republican Party seems to be entering a transition, and it could be the beginning of a rift between moderate and right-wing conservatives. Either way, it means a weakening at a time when they need to be strong if they want a hope of challenging Obama in 2012.