November 12, 2008 09:16 PM UTC

The Prize

•  
• by: TakeBackTheHouse

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

At a time when the Republicans are being forced to realign, something has been lost in the fight over the soul of the Colorado GOP; The Prize. Whether the party moves to the center or caters to the base, they have already won the policy race in 2010 and have almost certainly lost the political one. Who would want the reins of the party when the opposing ticket is led by Ritter and Salazar?

It is easy to forget that we have four branches of government in Colorado; Executive, Legislative, Judicial, and TABOR. While the Legislative branch has moved to the Left in the past couple of years, the Governor’s office and the Courts are still swimming somewhere in the middle and TABOR is firmly exerting itself from the Right.

Ritter has shown a willingness to cross labor, and speaks openly a pro-life line (even when campaigning against over-reaches like Prop. 48.) Salazar is no “Boulder Liberal” and when his vote was needed he sided with the Republicans on nearly every key issue. Salazar has been Colorado’s Lieberman, and while that has opened him to criticism from Progressives, Colorado is not Connecticut. Meanwhile, the Legislature leans towards the social freedoms of the Left, but TABOR has tied its hands on fiscal policy. The strict power of TABOR has left the public with only muted complaints about the size of Colorado government, and if anything it has left them more starved for services.

Short of a real revolution on the National stage, it is hard to see what Republican policy battles can be won in Colorado in a Ritter/Salazar year. The Democrats capitulation to its Center-Right members have left the Republicans without any good villains. From a Progressive viewpoint it has been a strategic disaster of ideology but from a Machiavellian viewpoint it has been a clever tactical play for power in the voting booth. Horse-race Democrats have been cheering each election victory, despite the victory being limited to who gets to give the Republicans what they want.

If you are a Republican, what can you do? Are you going to run post-partisan aisle-crossing races that will lose against equally acceptable incumbent aisle-crossers? Or do you pull farther to the Right and win more ideological victories but suffer huge polling place losses. If the other side is passing your agenda as it is, do you care if they fly your colors? Salazar introduced Alberto Gonzales, broke the filibuster against Alito, led the way on telecom immunity and Iraq spending. Why would you want him out of office, unless the battles you care about are written in your Bibles?

Quite unfairly, whoever wins control of the Republican Party is going to be blamed for the loss in 2010. In the long run, the Party will be well served if it pulls away from the Right fringe, but this might actually be the one cycle to let the loonies have the gavel. Tancredo is insane, but the wedge issue arguments over crap like immigration may be the only arguments worth pursuing for the GOP this year. Sure he will be blown out of the water, but so will anyone else put forward. 2010 might be a year when electoral victory is impossible, but ideological conversations can be furthered. After the far-Right’s “loss” the electoral rebuilding can begin when the focused fight is for a new President and for the Congressional delegation.

I have read a lot about ways the Republican Party in Colorado should refocus, but a fight for the helm of a sinking ship changes which people want the office of Captain. How the party does refocus will have little to do with how it should. The winners of the fight will be either the egotists or extremists, neither of whom really care about any given November. Ultimately, the best play may be to just give the crazies the ball. Let them pull the conversational spectrum a little farther Right while they crash and burn, and then hand them the blame for the electoral loss and send them on their way. Go into 2012 with Salazar and Ritter being models of “the way Democrats win” in Colorado, and then enter the 2012 battles already having set the terms for the war.

Who knows, if you bait the trap properly you might even leave a few Democrats wondering why some hopeless Green Party candidate sealed their doom while they pulled farther and farther Right into what you defined as the middle.