Playing the Long Game

“The first job of a political party is to get into power.” I was told that during one of my first A-Level politics lessons. It comes as a surprise therefore that the Republican Party seems to be doing everything in its power to make sure it doesn’t take the White House next autumn. Aside from Romney the other candidates are all pretty much unelectable and even Romney isn’t a particularly strong contender.

When faced with these two disparate points I’m forced to wonder, why it is that the Republican National Committee hasn’t chased after a more moderate candidate and asked them to run for the nomination. Could it be that the GOP doesn’t, in fact, want to win in 2012?

When you think about it this isn’t such a daft idea. Obviously the GOP can’t not put forward a candidate, but it’s also obvious that 2012 is not their year for at least two very good reasons, and possible more.

For starters it’s clear that there are problems within the GOP. The rise of the Tea Party has led to an increase in the number of – well I believe the polite term is crazies – and a move away from the moderate centre and towards the extreme right wing.  Now, while people may agree with people like Rick Perry’s stance on things such as abortion, I have yet to come across anyone who thinks that Perry or Bachmann’s desire to turn the US into a conservative theocracy is in any way a good idea. It is possible that by fielding the most impossible candidates the RNC is hoping that a loss either in the primaries or in the main election will force the crazies out of party and allow a shift back towards the moderate centre.

 The other problem is that the US (along with the rest of the world) is still knee deep in the worst recession this side of the Great Depression. Considering that the Republicans have a reputation as the party that is funded and supported by, and therefore looks out for, Big Business and given that in recent weeks they have shown again and again their dislike for the squeezed middle – to borrow a phrase from Ed Milliband – the RNC may believe that their chances of getting elected at this time are slim at best, so they aren’t really trying.

There is of course the chance that the GOP has just lost the plot but I think that is unlikely and maybe I’m just looking at this all the wrong way. Maybe the RNC does think it has a chance of getting elected with one of its current crop of clowns. But if I’m not wrong, then it is in fact playing a very long and very clever game. As mentioned above the Republicans can’t just sit this race out. But they may be willing to take a hit this time around, so that come 2016, by which time hopefully the Tea Party will have faded into memory and the economy will have righted itself, they can field a moderate candidate such as Chris Christie who will take the White House.

Time will tell.