I’m hoping Ruarai will be able to give us more of a US perspective on the GOP’s Iowa Caucus, but before he does, this from Dana Milbank struck me as going to the heart of the matter for US Republicans:
The Iowa Republicans’ indecision captures perfectly the existential struggle within the GOP nationally and within conservatism. They don’t know what they want — or even who they are. Are they Tea Partyers? Isolationists? Pro-business? Populists? Moralists? Worried workers? Do they want the corporate caretaker (Romney), the oddball isolationist (Paul) or the cultural warrior (Santorum)?
All, and none of the above… It’s noticeable that the Teapartyer Michelle Bachman has suspended her campaign. It seems that when it comes to electing folk, either the Tea Party doesn’t have the numbers, or they don’t quite trust their own supporters when it comes to government.
It strikes me that the US Republican party face the same problem as the post Thatcher Conservative Party, having told us what government is useless for, they struggle to make a coherent pitch for what they would do with it, if they took back control.
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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