The GOP mobbed by bad analogies

Published 8:02 pm Tuesday, October 15, 2013

By Staff Reports

 

Washington-based pundits might be excused for failing to comprehend the internal machinations of the Republican Party. Even many Republicans are confused these days. And surely it’s no crime to unintentionally misrepresent GOP struggles. The pundits who get it wrong can always tell the Americans it’s nothing personal — it’s just business.

But there’s no excuse for misreading “The Godfather.” Yet that’s what Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker did over the weekend, when she compared the GOP internal strife as a Corleone-like division.

“On one side we have Sonny, the hotheaded, impulsive, shoot-now-take-names-later son of Don Corleone,” she writes. “On Capitol Hill, he personifies the Tea Party followers who would rather die on principle than live to win a later day. On the other side, we have Michael, the cooler-headed son and intellectual strategist. On the Hill, Michael represents the so-called establishment legislators who understand the way forward, but thus far have been reluctant to pull the trigger.”

The analogy is weak. Many conservatives would say that instead, there’s a division between the Michaels (the Tea Party types who want to make a stand) and the Fredos of the Hill (who constantly makes concessions to the enemy).

Fredo never wanted to go the mattresses. It was Michael’s actions that led to the mob war (even Sonny wanted to make the deal that would have prevented conflict).



But in politics, analogies are always weak. It’s just that in this case, Ms. Parker’s analogies are insufferably shallow.

Sen. Ted Cruz is the focus of much of her ire. And that’s fair; Cruz may have a long-range plan, but he hasn’t yet shared it with any of us. Even the venerable Charles Krauthammer wonders why Cruz seems to be MIA at this point.

But Ms. Parker goes on to say it’s time for Sonny (the Tea Party) to drive through the fatal toll booth.

“Thus, the only alternative is a systematic, strategic purge of the GOP’s Sonny side,” she contends. “Rational conservatives who understand that governing requires compromise, not just ‘winning,’ need to form their own groups to first protect their reasonable legislators and then actively recruit and elect strong, likable candidates who can win general elections. They need to create their own scorecards to grade the obstructionists.”

And who exactly should pull the trigger on this “strategic purge”? We can assume she means the Washington-centric GOP that has failed to accomplish much of anything in recent years. The “rational conservatives” revered in the District of Columbia, such as Sen. John McCain, have little to recommend them to the rest of us.

Ms. Parker’s larger point is that the GOP must realize that to win the right to govern, it must win elections. And that’s true.

But it doesn’t mean it’s a wise strategy to try to win elections by losing every political battle. Right now, Obamacare is unpopular and Americans are more wary than ever of government’s overreach. That means conservatives are winning many of the arguments.

So leave the analogy. Take the cannoli.