WASHINGTON — Conservatives seem more fired up than they’ve been in years, rallying against President Barack Obama. But energy alone won’t herald a Republican revolution, and the excitement pulsing through the GOP base masks disputes and divisions the party faces ahead of critical midterm elections.
“I think 2010 is going to be a phenomenal year for the conservative cause, and I think Barack Obama is a one-term president,” former Vice President Dick Cheney declared Thursday, making a surprise appearance at an annual gathering of conservatives and earning a raucous reception.
This year’s political environment certainly seems unfriendly for the Democrats who control the White House and Congress, and Republicans are poised for big electoral gains following recent statewide victories in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia. Yet, fights within the party could hinder the GOP’s prospects come November. So could the lack of both a leader and a message other than anti-Obama.
Along with the right wing’s new fervor, the GOP’s struggle to find a unified voice was clear from the start of the annual three-day Conservative Political Action Conference — both in the speaker whom organizers chose to deliver the keynote address but also in what he had to say.
“America already has a Democrat Party. It doesn’t need two Democrat parties,” said Marco Rubio, suggesting that Republicans who don’t adhere to certain principles — namely his Senate primary opponent Charlie Crist in Florida — are no different from Democrats. Rubio added: “People want leaders who will come here … and stand up to this big-government agenda, not be co-opted by it.”
In the Senate race that typifies the GOP’s identity crisis, Rubio is backed by grass-roots groups in his bid against Crist, the establishment-favored governor once considered a shoo-in for the nomination. Given a national platform, Rubio gave a speech that contained several criticisms of Crist, though not by name, and that was met with much enthusiasm.
Such bitterly contested primaries underscore the short-term and long-term challenges facing Republicans.
“There is still a struggle within the Republican Party over who we are and what we stand for,” acknowledged Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina. Then he took on GOP senators he believes don’t fight for individual liberty, smaller government and lower spending, telling the crowd: “It’s a fight between those who take their constitutional oath seriously and those who don’t.”
“I would rather have 30 Marco Rubios in the Senate than 60 Arlen Specters,” DeMint added, referring to the moderate Republican-turned-Democrat of Pennsylvania.
The problems don’t end at such squabbles.
Republicans have no unifying leader like Ronald Reagan. There are many big voices in the mix, including TV’s Glenn Beck and 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. But there’s no unifying message like the Contract with America that was credited with helping the GOP take over Congress in 1994.
Also, antiestablishment “tea party” coalitions — largely made up of people with conservative and libertarian views — aren’t pledging allegiance to the Republican Party. But GOP chairman Michael Steele is trying to bring them into the fold; he recently held an hours-long meeting with several “tea party” leaders.
“Let’s say to the Republicans: ‘Will you show us you know how to be you?”’ said Dick Armey, the former House majority leader from Texas who has seemed to take on the de facto “tea party” leader role — even as he insists he doesn’t want it. “They must come to us and show they’re worthy of our loyalty. We don’t come to them.”
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