Karl Rove - Can He Beat the Tea Party and Christofascists?

This blog has looked at the declaration of war that Karl Rove and members of the so-called GOP establishment issued against the Christofascist/Tea Party base of the Republican Party and their plan to block the nomination of lunatics to candidate slots for the U. S. Senate and other high profile political offices.  I personally do not see Rove and company winning this war because they refuse to recognize what drives the Christofascists and Tea Party crowd: fanaticism that has no place for logic, reason, or objective reality.  For these true believers, it is simply beyond their mindset to grasp that most people do not want what they are selling: hate, racism, bigotry and homophobia with a major dose of male chauvinism.  As noted many times on this blog, the Christofascists and Tea Party crowd are like a cancer that has metastasized within the GOP.  I simply do not see the GOP ridding itself of the insane patients who have taken control of the asylum. The GOP leadership allowed these people into power at the grassroots level years ago and the cancer has now spread beyond anyone's control. Howard Fineman has drawn a similar conclusion.  Here are highlights from a recent column:

Rove gained clout in Texas politics long ago -- and boosted the fortunes of George W. Bush -- by crushing the hard-line conservatives in the state. These were ideologues that Rove and the Bushes rightly viewed as deadly to the family's chances of winning the presidency.

After Rove outmaneuvered the proto-Tea Party types in Texas, he was free to define Bush conservatism in a "mainstream" way, as "compassionate" on issues such as health care and education and open-minded about Hispanics remaking the Lone Star State.

Well, what goes around comes around, and with the Bushes temporarily quiescent and the Tea Party in control of the U.S. House -- and much of the GOP grassroots -- Rove is fighting a rear-guard action in a far more difficult position than a generation ago.

The party of Paul, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Gov. Rick Scott of Florida and many others is a throwback to the nativism and principled know-nothing-ism of conservatives whom the likes of William F. Buckley and Ronald Reagan purged from the party long ago, making it safe for the Roves of the world to advance.

It took the likes of Buckley and Reagan two decades to rid the GOP and the mainstream conservative movement of the John Birchers, ultra-isolationists and flat-out segregationists and to create a party and a platform that would win a national election.

Now leaders and potential leaders such as Cruz (a rising force to be reckoned with) and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida need to perform the same cleansing task -- and will probably have to take on the Paulites (who are paranoid conspiracy theorists at heart) to do it. 

The war for the soul of the Republican Party is real, deep and reminiscent of that earlier conflict. For the GOP it ended well: they harnessed the energy at the grassroots to take over Washington.  This equally bitter GOP civil war may end in the party's revival, too. But it won't be Rove, or one of his clients, who is able to end it. He's done.

Candidly, I despise Karl Rove.  But I equally despise the Christofascists and the Tea Party.  What is being launched is a war between equally poisonous forces.  Its only a question of which poison one prefers.