The fall of communism was the worst thing for the Republican Party. Before, all factions could easily be united against the common threat.
The social conservative could argue for the traditional Christian values under threat from the godless Communists and their useful idiots. The businessman and his allies could rail against government planning and perceived allies of the Spviets in the labor movement. The national conservative and his allies in the intelligence services and military could get his military funding, his increased powers for the central government against asocial (communist-sympathising) and above all, America, as a strong bulwark in the world.
With no threat of communism, the contradictions began to unravel. Why would a staunch Christian care about some godless banksters profit margin? Why would a tradionally minded nativist American who wants strong borders want to open trade with Mexico? Why can a budget hawk justify the military budget considering the gutting of every other social program. There is no common powerful enemy that can really capture so many fears as the USSR was.
There's a lot of truth to this.
There are two possible "new enemies" in sight (following the failure of the less well-defined War on Terror that seems to now be rejected by a large portion of the GOP base):
- the religion of Islam.
- the nation of China.
Both have advantages of becoming the new "overarching enemy" but there are some flaws I.e. Islam cannot ever "take over the U.S." in the same way Communism could have, and the U.S. is filled with fizzled out protests against supposed "subversive" religions and groups (Mormons Jews, Papists, Freemasons) that came to nothing; and China is so staunchly tied to the U.S. economy posturing as enemies is counterproductive for both their sake's.
