When Mitt Romney sought to help embattled senators in Utah and Arizona the issue went well beyond those preferences.

What was at stake and continues to be the major issue that Romney confronts as a Republican presidential aspirant in a party where a major ideological confrontation is in vigorous progress is the direction of the party.

The contrasting force to former Massachusetts Governor Romney is former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. This confrontation, as in so many others, finds at least quasi-historical precedents.

A tenacious battle for ideological control of the Republican Party occurred in 1964. This was a period when a prominent Eastern wing existed. It was headed by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who waged a no-holds-barred battle for the Republican presidential nomination with Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater.

Rockefeller was booed by Goldwater delegates when he declared from the podium of the San Francisco Cow Palace that the force he opposed was “outside the mainstream of American political thought.” Rockefeller represented a more traditional Republican Party while Goldwater was the favorite of a grassroots conservative bloc with particularly strong precinct organization in the southern and western regions.

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The latest running debate between Al Gore and Sarah Palin reveals once more the absurdity behind today’s Republican Party, which looms increasingly as a far right pressure group rather than a viable political entity.

The Republicans indicated the direction where they were heading when Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele dared to speak of right wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh as an “entertainer,” which was construed to mean that he was undermining his stature as a serious political analyst.

A furious Limbaugh demanded an apology. The blustery talk show host had declared himself to be the titular head of the Republican Party. Generally that title is conferred on the party’s last presidential nominee, in this case Senator John McCain of Arizona.

It was soon learned how much clout Limbaugh wields on the Republican Party as a penitent Steele issued an apology. This prompted Limbaugh to reiterate his claim as titular party head.

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Is the very set of tools that enabled the Republican Party to gain prominence the very thing that is killing it? If we look at the raise of the Conservative movement in this country one of the key things was the idea the media had an inherent liberal bias to it. This was important for a few reasons; it made it possible for Republicans to shrug off reporting which showed their agenda was not what the public wanted, it played a victim meme which dovetailed nicely with the nefarious Southern Strategy (e.g. conservatives were victims of the liberal press just like white working folks were victims of liberal policies) and perhaps most importantly it allowed the creation and legitimating of the Right Wing Echo Chamber.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

It is not really an accident that after the Fairness Doctrine was abandoned during the Reagan Administration there was a surge of new far Right voices on the radio. Those with deep pockets in the Conservative movement needed a place to regularly present a different view of things. It was a smart move as it allowed the true believers to have an alternate theory on the events of the day.

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