So It Turns Out Size Really Doesn’t Matter At All

Summary

The article discusses the Republican Party's "big tent" philosophy, questioning its inclusivity and relevance in light of recent political events and internal conflicts.

Abstract

The author reflects on the Republican Party's "big tent" metaphor, expressing skepticism about its actual inclusivity and the party's direction. The article suggests that the GOP's tent is less about diversity and more about a façade for attracting voters and their money. It points out the party's struggles with embracing extremist groups, such as White Supremacists, and the resulting identity crisis. The author argues that the size of the tent is irrelevant if it's not accessible to all, and notes that the party's electoral losses in 2020 and 2021 are due to a failure to retain and attract voters, rather than election fraud. The piece concludes that the GOP should focus less on the size of its tent and more on addressing the core issues driving voters away.

Opinions

The Republican Party's "big tent" is likened to a carnival or revivalist tent, implying deception and a focus on extracting money from supporters.
The GOP is perceived to be in an identity crisis, torn between distancing itself from or embracing extremist ideologies like White Nationalism.
The article suggests that the party's tent is effectively smaller than it appears due to the dominance of its extreme faction, which alienates potential moderate voters.
The author believes that the GOP's electoral defeats were a result of Trump's divisive behavior and the party's failure to appeal to a broad voter base.
There is a critique of the GOP's current strategy, which seems to focus on restricting voting access rather than trying to attract new supporters.
The piece implies that the Republican Party is losing more members than it is gaining, leading to a diminishing base of support.

Tent size, that is. Specifically, the allegedly huge size of the Republican tent

For most of my life I’ve been hearing about how the Republican Party has a very “big tent.” I started my voting life in the Republican tent, but was only there for a few years. In 1981 the GOP got caught doing some rather nasty things regarding a Gubernatorial election, and I decided to exit the tent.

I keep hearing the “big tent” thing, and in thinking about it, have come to several conclusions.

First, especially of late years, when I hear some GOP’er spouting about his big tent, I can’t help envisioning a carnival or circus tent, complete with slick-tongued barker, wanting to get us inside to get our money. Or, perhaps a so-called Christian revivalist tent, wanting to get us inside to get our money — healing by nostrum or by prayer, or playing with snakes, or whatever, all at a different cost.

I try not to be too cynical, but this is what comes to my mind when I hear about the Republican big tent. Sadly, getting money out of people doesn’t even require a tent anymore, thanks to the internet and very-tricky boxes in the sign up pages — hence tent size is not so important.

Second, the size of the tent seems rather meaningless if only selected people can get inside. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the GOP is having something of an identity-crisis lately — having something to do with White Nationalism being the plan or not the plan for the party. Even whether to simply tolerate White Supremacists seems to be something the party as a whole has trouble with.

Replace White Supremacists with Q-Anon, Anglo-Saxon primacy, “replacement” bulwarks, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, and the result is the same. The GOP seems lost within its own big tent; but the trend seems to be excluding people with any sense, in favor of what John Boehner (former Republican Speaker of the House) calls people from Crazytown. Guess what? When you support the crazies, and they get elected, they don’t suddenly become sane — especially if you enable and embolden them all along.

Third, it occurs to me that it’s not so much the size of the overall tent itself, but the sections and divisions within, that impact on who is to be included — and how. An absurdly huge tent, with only one end (an extreme end) being used by most, over time, suggests that the tent size is less important than tent use. Indeed, the tent is deceptively large — like when you buy a tent that is supposed to sleep 10–12, but it turns out only if everything other than people must go elsewhere.

It’s like there are many on the outside looking in — they want to be Republican, but aren’t sure if they can. “But look at the size of that tent!” they say. “The people it takes to fill up a tent of that size can’t all be wrong.” This is like the old commercial where a small guy is wearing size 22 bowling shoes, and the lovely ladies there are going crazy. Awful commercial, for more reasons than one.

Fourth, as with any circus or carnival, there is the crowd coming in and the crowd going out. If you want to keep the tent full for all the shows, you must attract new people — unless you’re going to rely solely on repeaters. That’s what the GOP has done; or at least the way it has turned out.

The GOP didn’t lose the White House in 2020 and the Senate in 2021 because of election fraud — the actual evidence is crystal clear on that point. They lost because WAY more people turned out to vote for people other than Trump and the two GOP candidates in the senate race. They lost the election because they lost large segments of voters — folks who left the big tent — and because they failed to attract enough new ones to replace them.

Why were “their people” lost? Well, Trump’s antics surely had something to do with it. Quite a few people that — a few years before — could stomach him, decided they no longer could. As to the “repeaters”: it appears that there is just a core of people who don’t mind being deluded, tricked and swindled, so these will leave by the rear flap, run to the front and buy a new ticket to be entertained again.

And now, as is quite evident from the huge number of state bills clearly designed to restrict voting in ways that impact disproportionately on Democratic voters (and black and brown voters), the GOP is signalling, in essence, that they have given up on attracting new people into their big tent. Rather, they are focused on ways of keeping people out of any tent.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) recently did an opinion-piece for CNN with his take on and case for how this came about, and for Congress to take some action.

Perhaps worse, in attacking their own (Republican governors, Senators, and Republican state officials), the GOP are widening the exit flap at the back of their big tent. The outflow will continue to be greater than the inflow. Ask the farmers who rely on water from the Colorado River and Lake Mead how that situation works out over time.

It seems long past time for the GOP to stop yapping about their big tent, since by now they should know that size doesn’t really matter — at least tentwise.