This was an important political moment.
Forget the Presidential election for a second. This was, politically, more important than that.
David Brooks captured it brilliantly in the New York Times. In an angry piece entitled "Revolt of the Nihilists", Brooks lays into Nancy Pelosi for using this hour of peril to make a Democratic fundraising speech.
But most of all he lays into conservative Republicans:
Now they have once again confused talk radio with reality. If this economy slides, they will go down in history as the Smoot-Hawleys of the 21st century. With this vote, they’ve taken responsibility for this economy, and they will be held accountable. The short-term blows will fall on John McCain, the long-term stress on the existence of the G.O.P. as we know it.
Might this event begin to split the Republican party? The banking and establishment Republicans together with the moderates and reformers might go one way, with the populist, talk radio base going the other way.
Impending defeat (in Congressional elections at a minimum) means that the coming years will be difficult for the party and see a hard fight over its future. The vote last night shows that the conservative base does not easily come to heel. And has a real constituency.
So could last night see the end for the GOP?
This happened to the Democrats in the late 1960s when the south began to split from the rest of the party. Republicans are not immune from a similar fate.
