At a conference last winter in Las Vegas, two men from different sides of the political spectrum found themselves in the same room debating each other. It was shortly after the 2008 presidential election and the inauguration of Barack Obama as president. The two men were James Carville and Karl Rove. Carville was getting the best of the debate by poking fun at Rove using his folksy New Orleans accent and a bunch of bayou stories that ended in laughter at Rove’s expense. Rove became extraordinarily irritated and proclaimed, “the Republican Party will make a comeback in 2010 by defining itself by what it is against!” This was the first time that the Republican Party defined itself as the party of “no” and it has stuck to the game book designed by Rove ever since.

The GOP strategy is one of blind obstructionism. The Republicans have failed to offer any realistic policy alternatives to the president’s and to Congress’, and the positions they have taken in opposition are full of holes and contradictions.

For example, when the president and Congress were working together to write up a budget in March, the GOP presented a 19-page alternative budget that would have abolished Medicare and Medicaid. Today, however, Republicans are pretending to be the champions of Medicare, claiming they are currently protecting it from the Democrats’ desire to slash it for their own progressive objectives. The alternative health-care bill that Republicans use to counter Democratic charges of obstructionism is a full six pages long. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t even meet the requirements set out for my freshman political science writing assignments. My papers have to be seven pages in length. But then again, it doesn’t take a lot of words to describe “no.”

The media plays a role too, specifically FOX News and talk radio. They report the news from a conservative viewpoint, and when the facts don’t meet their viewpoint, they just make them up. FOX doesn’t dispute that their commentators have a conservative slant, just that their “news” organization doesn’t. It’s an interesting argument, which its commentators like Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck refute by stating that their viewers are watching “FOX News,” not “FOX Commentary.”

However, demagogues like Beck are used by the GOP to rile up the base against progressive tyranny. Commentators like Beck and Hannity have excited the conservative base and the GOP has taken this as being a plus in terms of their 2010 mid-term prospects. They’ve seen the president and Congress’ approval numbers decline much less than their own, which are also declining, which they see as a plus.

But while conservative demagogues might be hurting the president’s poll numbers, they are now turning on the GOP as well. Beck has openly attacked Republican Sen. and outspoken conservative Lindsey Graham for not being conservative enough. His evidence: 1) Graham had the audacity to state that the GOP should try to expand its base to non-white Southern men; 2) Graham likes John McCain, who Beck describes as having a weird “Teddy Roosevelt progressivism thing going;” 3) Graham voted for the stimulus (he didn’t); and 4) Graham doesn’t watch Beck (I mean, what real conservative wouldn’t?). It is because of commentators like Beck that in a recent Rasmussen Poll, 73 percent of respondents stated that the GOP had lost touch with its conservative base.

It’s not just Republicans like Graham who are facing the heat of the firestorm they started. Republicans in tight races are also being hurt. For example, as reported in Tuesday’s New York Times, the Republican candidate in New York’s 23rd congressional district special election is facing an uphill battle. In this special election, the Republicans have nominated Dede Scozzafava. Scozzafava is a member of the N.Y. State Assembly and has attracted bipartisan support. Moreover, the 23rd District is a solidly Republican district. However, most polls show Scozzafava losing the election to her Democrat challenger because the Conservative Party of New York has failed to endorse Scozzafava and even worse has nominated its own candidate, Doug Hoffman, to run for the seat. It’s Hoffman’s presence that is splitting the conservative vote as well as the conservative talent. Hoffman has received endorsement from Beck, Sarah Palin, Dick Armey, Tim Pawlenty, Fred Thompson and other prominent political commentators and GOP politicians. His presence in the race will most likely cost the GOP a congressional seat.

So far, only Newt Gingrich, the man who led the last successful Republican insurgency against a Democratic Congress in 1994, has come out as seeing the folly of the possible conservative split. Republicans should heed his advice. But in order to save themselves, Republicans must stop idolizing the media crazies, develop alternatives, and should start giving moderates a voice. Otherwise, the 23rd District race might become a precedent repeated in districts that aren’t so safe for the Grand Old Party.

James Sunshine is a College freshman from Boca Raton, Fla.