The Race in NY District 23 has become a pivotal fight for the soul of the Republican Party.

Dede Scozzafava was run by the Republican machine but has been so thoroughly rejected by the Republican grass roots that she has effectively resigned from the race rather than face the disgrace of coming in third.  Republican Doug Hoffman has run under the Conservative party label in an effort to give the voters a truer conservative choice, given Scozzafava’s very liberal voting record.  Hoffman now faces Democrat Bill Owens.

Sides were selected and the Republicans split their support. Dick Army, Fred Thomson, and Sarah Palin have stumped for Hoffman while Newt Gingrich supported the official republican candidate.

This episode mirrors the campaign Joe Lieberman waged to retain his Democrat seat in Connecticut.  The liberal leg of the Democrats took his nomination for his support of Bush and the war in Iraq, but he ran as an independent and won.

Most impressive in this race is the impact of Erick Erickson, an A-list conservative blogger at Red State (and other sites) and a city councilman in our own Macon, GA. If you stop and think of the impact that a young conservative city councilman in Macon can now have in a NY district race you must appreciate the way the political landscape is changing.

Many conservatives were caught off guard by the effective use of the internet and social media by the Obama Campaign. They wished for that power but most did not really understand how to use it. Erick Erickson understands how to use it. It was probably an alarming lesson for the Republican Party elite.  The lesson is that that the era of top down party leadership is over.

The media will probably play that the Republican Party has now been hijacked by the ‘wingnuts’ and populist demagogues. While that may seem a risk it is not a certainty. More likely it will force the party apparatus to listen to those who feel they are without a political home.

Like all new sources of power this may come with a learning curve, but that is price of real change.

The Republican Party is most assuredly going through an identity struggle, and the pundits obfuscate the issues by speaking in only the most general terms. The controversy within the party is whether it should become more conservative, faulting moderation for its losses, or whether to become more “centrist”, adapting its message for the new demographics and polls.

It is fine to call for free markets, but that does not mean unregulated markets, and their message must contain a realistic measure of freedom and oversight. Financial institutions central to our well being should no more be totally unrestricted than our civil institutions. Even our most precious freedoms do have limits. Every town has courts and jails.

The party could start with an honest discussion of foreign policy- what has worked and what has not. Realism is a good word to bring to bear. We must address the relationship between a profligate economy and our place in the world. It is time for Johnny to cut up his credit cards and live within his means.

It is time to realize that promised benefits must be paid for. Sacrifice is sellable if it is shared.

It is time to realize that America’s strength is in its ideas, not wealth nor military power. It is not coincidence that America has originated so many inventions that have been a source of wealth and power. But our ideas did not originate here because of the soil and water content. We struggle to provide better and better safety nets without destroying the human power that has created our nation.

But the Republican Party’s message of freedom must be consistent. We can not ask our soldiers to die for the freedoms of others and then refuse to sell them liquor on Sundays.

It will be harder to justify some choice but not others. Individual freedom means allowing others to make choices that you may not approve of. The tent must be widened to include pro choice and pro life candidates, acknowledging the legitimate concerns of each. Republicans suffer from disparate groups who each have a litmus test.

Democrats have their divisions but they generally disappear for a few weeks in early November.

The perfect is the enemy of the good and suicide is a poor growth strategy.

Yet …..

All who wander are not lost.

The Libertarian Party had its roots in the Nixon Administration, in what many considered Nixon’s betrayal of the Goldwater Conservative values. His effort to combat the effects of inflation with wage and price controls indicated that he had limited faith in free market principles and sound money policies. His actions at Watergate showed contempt for the law he was supposed to uphold.

The growth of the religious right in the Republican Party also concerned Goldwater and continues to alienate many conservatives from the party. But the center is a moving center. Both the Democrats and the Evangelical right is moving closer to the center, leaving the Republicans weaker than it has been since Reagan.

The party needs new leadership. It should both rediscover its roots and address the changes that have already occurred.