Why do you think the GOP is so divided and when did it become that way?

[hopper]

I would also point to the Bush Administration. Bush didn't significantly shrink the gov't (and actually increased the size of Medicare) despite the GOP controlling both houses of Congress for four years of his term. After that, it became clear that the GOP establishment wasn't as committed to shrinking gov't as the hardcore right. The establishment's unwillingness to shut down the gov't in the long term in order to end Obamacare has reinforced this point.

Oh yeah Obama was really gonna really sign a repeal of a bill called "ObamaCare". Come on now...
Do you think Reid was gonna bring ObamaCare up for a repeal vote too in 2013?

[hopper]

Personally I think this really took off during Bush 43's time in office when libertarians and conservatives became more hostile to the Bush Administrations positions on Iraq, Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind etc and the asinine Department of Homeland Security but it became really pronounced in 2009 under Obama's Administration when the Tea Party came into existence.

This. The removal of Moderates from the party hurt them too with Minority Voters mainly with Latinos and Asians. The Chris Shays and Nancy Johnson's are gone.

[hopper]

It's more divided today than a few decades ago, and I don't exactly know when it REALLY took off.  However, let's not act like both parties haven't been pretty damn divided for virtually their entire existences.

Well yeah the Dems were a mess at the Presidential Level in the 70's and 80's losing spectacularly in 49 state blowouts in 1972 and 1984. The GOP is kinda similar now in that they aren't competitive in the Electoral College.

[hopper]

They're not really divided where/when it matters. They're arguing over window-dressing for the most part. At its core, all segments of the GOP voting bloc want to implement the same economically-restrictive, exclusionary and failed policies they always have championed - it's just a matter of arguing over how those policies are framed to the voters.

All of these RINOS, libertarians and cry-baby Tea Partiers alike - all of whom like to say they won't support anyone not cut from their cloth - will file lock-step into the voting booth on election day in droves and vote for every GOP nominee for office up and down the ballot, from President (whether that be Trump, Paul or Jeb!) to dog-catcher. Precedent is a bitch.

I don't think its a issue of "Presentation" of policies as you put it is a problem. Its a matter of tactics. The "Freedom Caucus" always want to put "Shutting Down The Government" on the table  when shutting down the government should be the last resort or tactic of negotiating anything.

[hopper]

40 years ago the GOP establishment courted social conservatives to become a political juggernaut. Along the way, they promised things (e.g. ban abortion) they never wanted to follow through with. They made "the government" into a boogeyman that is inherently bad. Now those voters want wha they've been promised; they want the impossible vision that establishment Republicans dangled in front of them for so long.

I don't know if the GOP as a whole has made government into a boogeyman. I mean its healthy to be skeptic of government. I just can't stand the hard-liners in the party in that they seem to be anarchists and that they totally dislike government.

[hopper]

Blame McCain? Barack Obama's former Chief of Staff Bill Daley has an editorial in WaPo today titled The GOP’s dysfunction all started with Sarah Palin which notes...

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Tea Party was a huge factor in 2010 but not 2014. The Tea Party got crushed in 2014.

Trump would have been a candidate with or without the debate rules. One does not have anything to do with the other.  The "House Divide" or Fratricide" as you put it that's more complicated.

[hopper]

Social conservatives, the failed reagan revolution, Bush's presidency, and the impact of Ron Paul.

I don't think Social Cons is a negative but it can't be the whole party. Ron Paul-I don't think he was a big factor in terms of the Republicans have a Libertarian streak since its not a big enough faction of the party. Sure he might paved the way for his son(Rand) being elected to the US Senate or Justin Amash getting elected to the US House.

[hopper]

Any party that includes white southerners will be divided. Their preferences are simply too distinct from the rest.

I used to think to think sort of the same but not all "House Freedom Caucus Members" in the US House are from the South.

[hopper]

Fox News, Rush Limbaugh , Mark Levin, and all these extreme right wing hosts

Rush always had a huge following. I don't know when FOX News got big maybe after when Bush W. got re-elected in 2004. Sean Hannity is more popular than Mark Levin by the way.

[hopper]

I'd say the GOP's leaders have a lot to do with this by actively courting more extreme elements of American society and then whipping them up in frenzied hatred and bunker mentalities to win elections, but not really realizing how this would create a more extreme voter base that would elect increasingly conservative politicians, who would then continue the cycle.

Nixon, Reagan, and GHW Bush were more than happy to fear-monger on the campaign trail when it helped turn the base out, but once elected were happy to sit down with Democrats to govern (horrible thing that is, isn't it). Just look at how different the GHWB of the 1988 and 1992 campaign rhetoric was from his actual Presidency; worlds apart.

However, all those Baby Boomers who grew up in the tranquil 1950s, turbulent 1960s, depressing 1970s, and "prosperous" 1980s were helping power these Presidents by turning out to vote for them in these elections, and ate up all the crap that was fed to them and believed it.

Then, in the 1990s, generation changed happens all across government, with the Republican Revolution of 1994 the most famous case. The New Deal generation's influence in government dies off as they literally die off themselves, and are replaced by these "new conservative" Baby Boomers who lionize Reagan and his "revolution".

Then 9/11 happens and the Muslims become their enemy. Increasing numbers of people realize that gays aren't actually horrible, and support for their rights ticks up. So what does GW Bush do in 2004? Campaigns on his war on Islamic terror and banning gay marriage, cementing the image in the long run among young voters and immigrants that the GOP is a party of hateful white Christians.

Then Obama gets elected, and the once-revolutionary Baby Boomer generation is painted as "RINOS" by a new generation of Baby Boomers (many born in the last half of the Baby Boomer generation) and now the first half of the Generation X group) even more extreme who get elected in 2010.

And now we approach 2016, and those 2010 Tea Partiers are suddenly "not conservative enough".


It's a positive-feedback loop of extremism. The leaders of the GOP, both past and present, have a lot of blame to cast upon themselves for 1.) inviting these people into their party, and 2.) feeding their paranoia and resentment for electoral gain.


"Lay in the bed you made" and all

Well yes and no. No, Bush HW's rhetoric economically was not that different in 1992 than it was in 1988. Yes it was different socially since he was talking about Religion and Family in 1992 and that alienated a lot of people in the Northeast and maybe in the Upper Midwest Suburbs of Chicago, Detroit, and Milwaukee.

As far as Bush W's. 2004 campaign goes I don't think Bush W. campaigned on hate towards immigrants since he was for immigration reform.  I don't see what was wrong with Bush W. campaigning on "The War On Terror" and keeping us safe. On the issue of gay rights yes acceptance of gay people was mostly there although it had a short way to go. Gay Marriage- The majority of people were not for it at the time so it was an issue to run on. Obama was in favor of Gay Marriage in 2008 but even he was too scared to say it.

Um no the tea partiers that got elected in 2010 are still in the US House. They usually get primaries from their left if they do get them at all.