(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Former Pennsylvania senator and Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum scored victories in primary contests in Minnesota, Missouri, and Colorado. This is, at least for now, injecting much needed wind into the sales of Santorum’s fledgling bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

As former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney went into last Tuesday’s primaries fresh off of his victories in Florida and Nevada, many expected a stronger showing by the presumptive frontrunner. Many are again asking if Romney can develop the broad appeal needed to galvanize the seemingly disparate factions of the Republican Party and capture the nomination.

Americans are witnessing an intense ideological struggle being played out and disguised as the Republican presidential primary process. For the past 30 years the Republican Party has been disciplined in terms of messaging and staying on message. Now the far right fringe elements of the party are vying for control and attacking each other. The social/Christian conservative faction, represented by Santorum; Libertarian faction, represented by Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX); Tea Party faction represented by Newt Gingrich, and moderate faction of the Republican Party represented by Romney are fighting for the identity of the party and control of the message and attacking each other in the process. Whoever emerges victorious will have won the battle but lost the war.

According to the New York Times in 2008 the Republican Party platform espoused ideas such as making the 2001 and 2003 tax cut permanent; supporting "timely and carefully targeted aid to those hurt by the housing crisis…” and imposing an immediate moratorium on the earmarking system. They proposed to make insurance more affordable and more secure. Also, revive Medicare by rewarding quality care, promoting competition, and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. Today we know what the party is against (anything Obama) but are clueless on what they stand for.

Romney and Gingrich are not focused on policy differences. Their attacks on each other’s character in order to prove some conservative bona fides is their effort to capture support from the far right. In Florida, Romney painted Gingrich as an influence peddler, “When I was fighting against cap and trade, the Speaker was sitting down with Nancy Pelosi…encouraging it. When I was fighting to say that the Paul Ryan plan to solve Medicare was bold and right, he was saying that it was right wing social engineering." Gingrich inaccurately accuses Romney of being pro-abortion, “There’s been a lot of talk about the Obama administration’s attack on the Catholic church,” according to CBS News. “Well the fact is, Gov. Romney insisted that Catholic hospitals give out abortion pills against their religious belief when he was governor.”

Gingrich has also attacked Romney as a tool of Wall Street, “We’re not going to beat Barack Obama with someone who owns Swiss bank accounts, Cayman Island accounts…I am running for president to represent you… not to represent Goldman Sachs.” Romney attacks Santorum as being pro big government, “government grew by some 80 percent. He voted to raise the debt ceiling five times. This…may have worked in the past, but it will not work in the future.”

Where would the 2012 political season be without some good ole’ references to race? Instead of listening to solutions Americans are subjected to vitriolic diatribes from candidates such as Santorum who use veiled racial references to pander to social conservatives and the Christian Right, “The question is — and this is what Barack Obama didn't want to answer — is that human life a person under the Constitution? And…Well if … — human life is not a person — then I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say, ‘we're going to decide who are people and who are not people.” Newt Gingrich goes from Ronald Reagan’s reference to “welfare queen” to calling President Obama the “food stamp president.” "Over here you have a policy which, with Reagan and me as speaker, created millions of jobs — it's called paychecks. Over here you have the most successful food stamp president in American history, Barack Obama."

This problem with messaging and image has been developing since the inauguration of President Obama. At the Tea Party “code red” rally against health care reform, protesters carried signs stating “Warning: If Brown can’t stop it, a Browning can,” referring to Sen. Scott Brown’s (R-MA) health care vote and a Browning firearm. On Saturday, March 20, 2010 as Rep’s. John Lewis (D-GA) and Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) were leaving the Cannon office building they encountered members of the Tea Party protesting the health care reform bill. As the protesters exchanged words with the Congressmen, some of the protestors called them “nigger” and spat on them. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) was called a “faggot”.

The Christian social conservatives have been able to distract the public’s attention away from real problems and focus their attention on politically irrelevant and divisive issues. Wedge issues such as gay marriage and abortion pale in comparison when you’ve lost your home, lost your job, can’t afford to take your sick child to the hospital, and can’t afford to put gas in your car to get them there.

This ideological struggle within the Republican Party is of its own making. As the Tea Party was clamoring for attention and the Christian Rights tactics became more insidious Republican leadership refused to repudiate and disassociate themselves from the dangerous and incendiary comments of their surrogates. Instead, they sought to improve their political position during the mid-term elections by riding the wave of anger caused by fear and prejudice. Republican leadership felt it better to keep the fringe dissidents engaged and not run the risk of alienating them and having them abandon the party. Leadership was conspicuously silent for too long.

Through their silence they betrayed America and now their ideological chickens have come home to roost. The resultant Republican nominee will have won the ideological battle but in doing so will be so damaged and will have moved so far to the right that they will be almost unelectable in the general election. They will loose the war.

Dr. Wilmer Leon is the Producer/ Host of the nationally broadcast call-in talk radio program "Inside the Issues with WilmerLeon," and a Teaching Associate in the Department of Political Science at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Go to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , www.wilmerleon.com , email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . orwww.twitter.com/drwleon