Frum: Tea Party Extremists Hurt GOP

Conservative blogger David Frum writes in the British newspaper Telegraph that Tea Party extremists will cost the GOP seats in the 2010 mid-terms it might otherwise win.

It's difficult for a political party to think strategically after a political defeat as severe as 2008's. But the Tea Party elevated the inability to think strategically into a fundamental conservative principle. Its militants denounce those Republicans who have resisted the movement as ideological traitors: "Republicans in name only" or even (charmingly) as "Vichy Republicans". In fact, the unthinking rejectionism of the Tea Party has strengthened Obama's political position. Now it threatens to deplete Republican strength in Congress, losing races that could have been won.

David Cameron's Conservatism responds to local British conditions. It's not an export product. But there is at least one big lesson that Americans could learn from him when the Tea Party finally ends: yes, a party must champion the values of the voters it already has. But it must also speak to the voters it still needs to win.

Bingo. Conservatives in this country appear to be making the same mistake made by Tories in the UK after losing to Labour in the late '90's: assuming the loss was due to not being conservative enough and moving further right by running off moderates. This only shrunk the party and its appeal further leading to bigger losses.

Historically, the minority party tends to gain seats in both houses of Congress in mid-term elections following big wins by the majority. With a multiplicity of stubborn problems plaguing the Obama administration (e.g. unemployment, Afghanistan, the Gulf oil spill) this trend has looked likely to continue. However, Frum is correct that Tea Party candidates such as Rand Paul (R-KY) and Sharron Angle (R-NV) "have aligned themselves with an array of wild positions" and brought vulnerable Democratic opponents back into their respective races.

Stay tuned.

--Ballard Burgher