John McCain is a name that Americans should know. Chris Simcox is not nearly as well known, at least not to people outside of Arizona, but that could all change in the next two years. Chris Simcox is going to run against Senator McCain, with the hope of defeating McCain and his moderate tendencies in 2010. This now makes Arlen Specter and John McCain part of the Republican hit list of people that the new Republican leadership does not want representing conservative ideals in Congress.
Chris Simcox is a founder of the anti-illegal immigrant group, Minuteman. The Minuteman Civil Defense Corp's mission is "to see the borders and costal boundaries of the United States secured against the unlawful and unauthorized entry of all individuals, contraband, and foreign military." Republicans in Arizona are going to have to ask themselves whether they want such a hard anti-immigration candidate like Simcox to have a chance at the Senate seat in replacement of a proven bipartisan senator in McCain.
The challenges to McCain and Specter bring up a much bigger issue, though: the death of moderate Republicans. Not just the loss of McCain in the general election, but other moderates-like ex-U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut-going down in the previous election signaled the end of the moderate conservatives.
The loss of people like Christopher Shays in the 2008 election has made the Republican leadership think that the only way to win now is to be extremely right-wing. This really should not be the attitude being adopted by the Republicans. Jim Himes beat Christopher Shays for two important reasons: Barack Obama heavily endorsed Jim Himes (painting Shays as "Bush-like"), and Christopher Shays stuck to his guns when it came to his decision on the Iraq War. Moderate Republicans like Shays only lost the election because of the wrongs of the Republican Party as a whole, and the connection by name that was made between the two-not their moderate tendencies.
This type of thinking is what is going to sink the Republican Party. If the past couple of elections have taught us anything, it's that registered Independents are the key to winning an election. That being said, it's ridiculous to think that an extremely right-wing candidate is going to win when Democrats are going to put up someone like Barack Obama (or just someone who agrees with Barack Obama), who can win over Independents.
Libertarian voters are a group that may be a bit satisfied with the anti-big government message the Republicans are emitting right now, but they may find themselves on the outside looking in with more radicalism taking place in the party. The biggest issue that the Republicans are basing their arguments on is the inordinate amount of spending taking place today (the stimulus package and the bailouts). These are especially easy issues that can appeal to Libertarians, since candidates can simply say that they do not want big government involvement in the private sector. The social aspects of the Republican Party will very likely start to interfere with what these same Libertarians believe in if the Republican Party starts to radicalize.
There is always the question of whether the Republican name has been tarnished. President Bush's wars and the Republican Congress letting the deficit get out of hand raises the question of whether the public will really trust the Republican Party as the party of fiscal responsibility ever again. The one thing that they do have going for them, though, is that Democrats don't seem in any hurry to slow down the increased spending that was started by the Republican-controlled Congress.
If things continue to go this direction, we are going to see Democrats control Congress for the length of time that they did in most of the 20th century. The Republican Party is not doing anything right to rectify that potential situation. Instead, they are going to alienate both the Libertarians and the Independents, two groups that are becoming of greater importance every year.
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