A Big Tent Republican Party

Americans’ love of elections is remarkable. Although the midterm elections have only just passed, Washington is already gearing up for the presidential election in November 2012. From Feb. 10 to 12, about 10,000 conservative Republicans gathered at a hotel in the capital, where they began evaluating candidates for the next presidential election with carnival-like excitement.

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is an annual gathering of conservatives and a tradition-rich convention that has been held since 1964. It was once a conference of the sort of ultra-conservative groups who attacked former president Nixon – who at the time was called fairly conservative – as being liberal. The Republican Party is now the closest it has been to the CPAC line since the Reagan days, and CPAC has become the largest-scale and most orthodox Republican assembly. Politicians seeking the Republican presidential nomination attend the conference to show off how conservative they are, and it is a custom for them to get the blessing of a popular vote from the attendees.

However, a bit of change is brewing this year. GOProud, a Republican organization which advocates gay rights, was invited to the conference (by the way, GOP is another name for the Republican Party). They seek to amend the U.S. Constitution to allow gay marriage, which is unconstitutional. For the American religious right, homosexuality is tied with abortion as their biggest target of criticism. So once rumors began swirling around the end of last year about GOProud’s participation in the conference, furious opposition arose from well-known religious right groups such as the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America, as well as stars of the religious right like former Alaska governor Sarah Palin – who seeks a presidential run – and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee – an evangelical pastor – have decided not to attend. This change offers a window into Republican Party turmoil leading up to the next election.

The Republican Party is a conservative party, but the word “conservatism” breaks down into three broad strains: Libertarians, who advocate sweeping tax cuts and government budget cuts and champion “small government” (the tea party movement, which came to prominence in the previous midterm elections, is an example); “Foreign Policy Hawks,” who stress a diplomatically strong America; and “Religious Conservatives,” who strive for a revival of morals based on Protestant ethics. However, there are not many “complete conservatives” who subscribe to all three of these. Libertarians especially have an instinctive aversion to government interference in individual religious belief and many are opposed to any government that focuses on themes like abortion and homosexuality. So the religious right is a troublesome group that threatens to bring about division in the American conservative movement.

Thus, the goal of this year’s CPAC organizers was a “Big Tent” Republican Party. They are expanding the tent so that all types of conservatives can unite for the next election, and they dared to bring in a gay organization to send a message that they are broadening the party’s base.

However, there is considerable opposition from the religious right. They have formed groups to take organized action, such as door-to-door visits and distributing flyers, and the Republican Party cannot draft an election strategy without getting the vast evangelical community out to vote. The tea party movement is on the rise, but their ability to mobilize is unknown. As the religious right becomes more consolidated inside the tent, the Republican Party leadership must think about how to maintain internal peace and solidarity.