Will Racism Destroy the GOP?

From Daily Kos

Yesterday, we were treated to the bizarre spectacle of John McCain trying to talk down his own supporters as their anger boiled over and they slandered Obama in crazed, often racist terms.

"No, ma'am," McCain replied to a woman's declaration that Obama was an "Arab terrorist."

Yeah - where would you have gotten that crazy idea?

Apparently, McCain and his advisers had no idea how ugly the strain of race-baiting they were stirring up would look, once it was out there in the light of day, and are now reconsidering their strategy. Funny, since anyone who's stopped by NoQuarter or RedState lately could have told them exactly what to expect.

McCain's strange contortions in trying to raise doubts about Obama show the dilemma the GOP finds itself in. The attacks that conservatives seem to relish most, be it Ayers, Wright, or Obama's obscure ties to African dictators, have practically no substance or bearing on the day to day concerns of voters and little appeal to the independents the GOP needs to win elections. But, should Obama get elected, that's exactly what we can expect from the right-wing noise machine, in spades. I wouldn't be surprised if the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity are secretly salivating over the prospect of an Obama presidency, so they can crank the hate and fear up to 11 and sell lots of books with scary titles.

In some ways, the rise of Obama-hatred is just a manifestation of a larger trend that's been bubbling under for quite some time. With whites set to become a minority within decades, it may have been inevitable. Almost every country with a large influx of immigrants has seen a nativist political movement rise up to counter the cultural shift. Dovetail that xenophobic strain with the cultural conservatism that has been the mainstay of the GOP base for the past couple decades, and you could have a powerful movement focused on American traditionalism, one that has been building for some time but that was sparked into being by the first black president.

If Obama gets elected, expect to hear lots of "Remember when..." and "I barely recognize this country anymore!"

At the same time, this week's embarrassing focus on McCain's unruly crowds revealed that this movement could do more to hurt the GOP than to help it.

Republican Congressman Ray La Hood denounced Palin's attacks on Obama, saying they "don't befit the office she's running for" and "certainly don't reflect the nature of the man." It's also hard to interpret McCain's clumsy walking back of his own attacks as anything other than a response to GOP insiders worried about where this is taking them.

So they've lost David Brooks, and Bill Buckley's son...you have to wonder how many other fiscal/libertarian conservatives are going to flee the GOP if the turn towards "small town values" and cultural issues continues, combined with the newfound race-baiting rhetoric directed towards Obama. What happens if that rhetoric boils over into instances of right-wing domestic terrorism and violence a la Timothy McVeigh?

And so the GOP will face a choice, both now and in 2012. Do they go full-in with the culture war approach epitomized by Palin, Tom Tancredo and others? Or will they move in the other direction, towards a kind of social moderation of the kind practiced by Schwarzenegger or Michael Bloomberg? And, if they do moderate themselves, how will the rabid, nativist element of the base react?