I should have been more clear – CfG isn’t the ONLY player in this “cleansing” of the Republican Party, but it had been influential. Lincoln Chafee attributes his general election loss in 2006 to the pounding he took from the CfG during the primary, and then the guilt-by-association of the increasingly ideologically-pure Republican Party (as symbolized by CfG types).

So, CfG has been a major player in promoting the removal of RINOs and replacing them with hardliners. Certainly, there have been other groups, but CfG is a big one.

Primaries allow hardliners to promote/force an agenda onto a candidate that may make him/her less viable in a general election. Likewise, outside funding of candidacy is something of a quid pro quo relationship, meaning candidates are pressured to support ideas they may not have. The Specter and Chafee situations demonstrate both problems.

By now, like the rest of you, I’ve seen the umpteenth finger pointed at the ‘Club for Growth’ PAC. Surely, Matt, you’ll have a demographic reason for Specter’s dilemma that explains why $2m spent by one reactionary PAC remains causally irrelevant.

But if you feel CfG has been a major player in carrying out purges and giving us today’s ideologically zealous Republican Party, then there are other parts of this story I’d be fascinated to hear.

How about the ways past party purges were conducted?

How about PAC influence during a Presidential term? For one thing, can you give us a more definitive account of how deeply Grover Norquist shaped the legislative agenda under Bush II?

Cheers,

Martin

I think the Specter thing solidifies the movement of the Democrats to occupy the center, where the Republicans used to be. The real question is whether the Republicans see this regionalization/marginalization (see Snowe’s NYT op-ed) as a good thing or not. If they do, then the modern two-party system may be in danger, as the Democrats could fracture from being “too wide”. This is a longer view, but it is fascinating to see the evolution of the parties over the past 30 years.