Identity Crisis

One verdict from the 2006 election was obvious before a single vote had been counted: The Republican Party no longer has a coherent governing philosophy. Republicans who care about advancing a consistent set of ideals are already at each other's throats and are likely to stay there. True, most Republicans still describe themselves as "conservative." But it is no longer clear what that word means.

When they have nothing else to say, Republicans will always accuse Democrats of harboring secret plans to raise taxes. But the tax issue just sits out there, unhinged from any logical approach to how revenue and spending should fit together in a sensible budget.

Then there is Iraq. Republican foreign policy realists saw the war as a disaster going in. Neoconservatives who supported the invasion increasingly blame the Bush administration for botching the job. The administration's approach to Iraq is an orphan -- only President Bush and his closest advisers claim it as their own.

That is why we can know how Republicans and conservatives will spend the last two years of the Bush presidency. They will fault philosophical adversaries for what went wrong, purge various actors and ideas from the movement, and insist on contradictory forms of ideological purity. My God, they'll sound like Democrats, won't they?

At the beginning of the 2006 campaign, the most popular charge in punditry was that Democrats were going to the voters with "no ideas." As the election closes, it's clear that the Republicans won the "no ideas" contest. In race after race, they tried to win by saying how horrific their Democratic opponents were -- and, in many cases, Republicans started touting their own independence from Bush. The Republicans have no coherence on immigration; no plausible plans for fixing the mess in Iraq; and little to say about economic insecurity, health care or the budget.

The lesson of 2006 is that the past five years have aggravated every contradiction on the right to the breaking point: religious conservatives against libertarians; neoconservatives against foreign policy realists; pro-immigration conservatives against immigration critics; big business against working-class conservatives; compassionate conservatives against . . . hmm, how do you describe the other side on that one?

In Congress, conservatives who voted for big budget deficits now blame figures such as Tom DeLay for forcing them to do it. Some Republicans who condemn the cost of the prescription drug benefit under Medicare were once happy to brag about it to seniors. Incumbents attack congressional "earmarks" for special spending projects, all the while boasting at home about the bacon they've put on their constituents' tables.

Add to all this the remarkable display of backstabbing among House Republican leaders over who did or didn't do what (and when) about the Mark Foley scandal. Political solidarity is not much of a value anymore in the Republican family.

That is why the most interesting battles over the next two years could take place not between the parties but within them. After a miserable year, Republicans have a lot of scores to settle. And conservatives, many of whom know they've lost their way, will be devoting a lot of energy to figuring out exactly who they are.

postchat@aol.com