Can The Tea Party and Club For Growth Folks Get Along?

I saw over at Frum's place there is a article called The Coming Club for Growth Versus Tea Party Fight

Now I am not a part of either movement. I guess I am more anti Club for Growth in some ways because of how they treated Huckabee. But there are some good points here.

First let me tackle the nonsense before he gets to the meat of the argument. He says "Republican purists have been able to facilitate the Republican loss of the 23rd House District of New York and help push Sen. Arlen Specter over to the Democratic Party."

As to Specter this is sort of nonsense. Specter left because he was and is an opportunist. As to the 23rd House District we all know a good bit of that had to do with the bizarre backroom deal of how the GOP nominee was selected.

He brings the whole Florida Senate GOP primary race into the discussion. WHAT BUSINESS DOES RUBIO HAVE CHALLENGING CRIST is the tone. He does not exactly give us reasons why CRIST has a Divine right to the nomination or why it is bad we have a primary for what is really a open seat.

However I found this interesting and there is some truth here:
The facile observation that this is the result of “Tea Party” anger misses a larger historical theme that has roiled the Republican Party for decades — the battle between the Libertarian members (Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan) and what was once called the “Moral Majority” (think Jerry Falwell). In regional terms, one could say Southwest and West Coast against the Old South and Border states. Libertarians by and large say, “Do what you want, but don’t scare my horses doing it.” The social conservatives say, “If you don’t do what I want, then I will have my horses stomp you.”

If we were to scratch most of the Tea Party protesters, we would probably find just as many libertarians as social conservatives, if not more. Indeed, the battle within the GOP won’t be among so-called moderates, social conservatives, and populists. The real battle will be between the pro-Ayn Rand Club for Growth (which supports the right of any banker in New York City to make any amount of money he or she can) and the populist Tea Party gang (which wants to hang every banker in New York City). The present marriage of convenience between these two forces cannot last. Can one imagine a true Tea Party member supporting the right of Goldman Sachs’ employees to make as much money as they can, regardless of the consequences to society? Or the Club for Growth insisting that their members absolutely condemn abortion in any circumstance?

So, Charlie Crist in Florida,and many other conservative, but not theologically pure, Republicans will find themselves caught between these forces in the next 9 months. Where this leaves the folks who are trying to balance a constructively smaller government with a practical maximum of individual freedom remains unclear.

It does leave immense openings for any number of Republicans—from Mitch Daniels in Indiana, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Bob Corker of Tennessee, Mitt Romney, to Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin—to forge some form of coalition among the groups based both on fiscal prudence and on personal freedom.
Or, as once was written in this land, the freedom of Americans to pursue life, liberty and happiness.

Now I am not sure what is with his list of future GOP hopefuls. I mean was not Mitt Romney backed 100 percent by Club for Growth and often as he puts it the "“purifier” forces in the Republican Party" ?

Regardless I think he has some insight here. I think the parts I BOLDED are true. As to the Tea Party movement and it's future. It appears to me that the mounting evidence is they will operate in the GOP. However regardless if they are a GOP faction or a third party how they will handle internal differences is important to its future.

I agree with him that there is a Libertarian ethos in the TEA PARTY movement. We have already seen some tension between what he calls the Libertarian branch and the populist branch.

It stands to reason both movements , and especially the,TEA PARTY MOVEMENT, has it own regional differences that is some ways mirrors the two parties. For instance in the South and Mid south they would be more populist with a social conservative bent . In the north and west we would see the opposite.

However as to the CLUB for GROWTH should we not be seeing some similar factions. I mean there are different "Libertarian viewpoints" on such things as trade and immigration. Actually a pure Libertarian viewpoint would be very FREE TRADE and to use a term I hate and think is misused very often that is OPEN BORDERS. However some libertarians have on this issue adjusted that line of thought.

However the tension is real. What the Huckabee race showed us was that many people saw the populism that Huckabee was bringing in as a HUGE THREAT. Needless to say the attack on Huckabee by these various forces were intense.

I am not sure who is going to win this and come out on top but it will be fun to watch.