Just like the Democrats in 1984, today's Republicans are shifting power toward party leaders and away from grassroots activists. It didn't work then, and it won't work now.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s veto Wednesday night of a law allowing businesses to discriminate against gays and lesbians reveals something important about the divide inside today’s GOP. It’s not only ideological; it’s also vertical.
Brewer faced pressure to sign the bill from below: from the local legislators and activists who passed it. But she ultimately succumbed to pressure from above: from national Republican leaders and their corporate allies, who fear looking complicit with homophobia at a time when homophobia is rapidly becoming a political and economic loser.
There’s been a lot of this kind of vertical wrangling in recent months. In Congress, House Majority Leader John Boehner has tried to push rank-and-file Republican members of congress to unconditionally raise the debt ceiling and support a path to legalization for illegal immigrants. Republican bigwigs have tried to prevent local Tea Partiers from mounting primary challenges that undermine the GOP’s chances of taking the senate. The Republican National Committee has published an “
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