'A Party Without a Base and a Base Without a Party'

” A Schizophrenic Elephant” is diagnosed by Daniel Greenfield in the latest essay at his Sultan Knish blog:

The Republican Party did not really understand what the coming of FDR meant and they had some excuse for their inability to fully grasp the coming transformation. But the Republican Party of 2012 had no such excuses and yet was still unable to come to grip with what Barack Obama meant for America in the way that its base had begun articulating vocally before the midterm elections.

The elephant is out of touch with the enemy and out of touch with its own base. It’s out of touch with America and the world. It dwells in a comfortable bubble where nation building still works, amnesty solves problems and a few good attack ads can swing any election. It doesn’t understand the issues on foreign policy and it can’t connect with domestic issues anymore. That bubble is Washington D.C.

But the real tragedy is the Republican base, the working Americans misrepresented by a party that dislikes them almost as much as it needs them.

The Republican Party, like the Democratic Party, never amounted to very much. It ceased being radical shortly after it came into being and instead became a government party. It’s the wasted energy and votes of its base who might have been able to make a difference that it has siphoned off in multiple elections. The voters who might have been able to save America instead wasted their votes and energies on the likes of Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan, who for all their youthful cred, preach the discredited politics of another era, while scrambling to connect with voters facing the fallout of their policies.

The Republican Party can be transformed, the schizophrenic elephant can be healed, but first we have to recognize what it is and what it isn’t.

Read the whole thing.™