Sam Stein, Huffington Post:Speaking to an affectionate crowd of Log Cabin Republicans on Saturday evening, Meghan McCain ridiculed the party her father headed this past election, declaring that "old school Republicans" were "scared shitless" of the changing landscape.
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"I feel too many Republicans want to cling to past successes," said McCain. "There are those who think we can win the White House and Congress back by being 'more' conservative. Worse, there are those who think we can win by changing nothing at all about what our party has become. They just want to wait for the other side to be perceived as worse than us. I think we're seeing a war brewing in the Republican Party. But it is not between us and Democrats. It is not between us and liberals. It is between the future and the past."
She also took jabs at Ann Coulter ("overly partisan and divisive") and Rush Limbaugh ("most of our nation wants our nation to succeed"), as well as Republicans -- like her own father -- who think technology is the key to retaking America ("Republicans using Twitter and Facebook isn't going to miraculously make people think we're cool again").
While it's nice to see Republicans take saner stances on issues of equality, I wouldn't see this as a shift in the GOP -- at least, not in the elected representatives. An electoral rout has had the effect of a party purge. To a large extent -- in the House of Representatives, anyway -- the people who've been able to hang onto their seats are those from the reddest districts. In other words, voters drove all but the craziest wingnuts from Washington.
So you've kind of got a Catch 22; in order to win more elections, the party must become less crazy -- and in order to do that, the crazy Republicans already in power have to lose elections.
I don't envy these Republicans who are swimming against the tide. The nuts are going to try to rip them apart.
