Big Tent Fight, Small Tent Fight

American politics have always been a messy, throw-it-all-in-the-pot sort of business.

Because we generally conduct our civic business under the banners of two big parties, those banners come with a lot of baggage.

Over the years, the Democrats have been burdened by some major creepiness, from the Jim Crow-supporting southern Democrats of the 1950s to the militant-coddling left wing of the party in the 1970s.

Republicans, meanwhile, have been nervous fellow-travelers with racists (David Duke), intolerant religious leaders (Ted Haggard) and wild-eyed conspiracy theorists (Glenn Beck).

No wonder people yearn for third-party options.

Not only would more parties give us more options; they would also allow the folks on the fringe to build their own tents.

But until we evolve into a true, multi-party democracy, this is the game we're stuck with. Which is why it's so fascinating to watch the current struggles within both parties.

You can read a lot about the state of the Republican and Democratic movements by the rebellions both parties are struggling to tamp down.

The Democratic rebellion is the sort of upheaval common during a time of ascendancy, when the tent has gotten so big that it's a little hard to know what the party stands for anymore.

Is this the party of women? Of Blue Dog moderates? Of working class Roman Catholics? What?

The fault lines are fairly familiar: abortion, taxes, deficits, government regulation, jobs, health care, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The question is whether three utterly different leaders (Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack Obama) can steer the leviathan toward meaningful accomplishment.

This is why Democrats see accomplishing something -- almost anything -- on health care reform as an imperative.

There's a fear that the whole ponderous coalition could grind to a halt.

But it's important to point out that, because of the Democrats' massive power, the party is accomplishing a lot under the radar, dismantling or rejiggering a decade of Republican control in less than a year.

Even clumsy power is powerful.

On the other hand, you have the Republican Party's tent-match. There, the question isn't, Who do we allow in? Or, How do we share power among our factions?

The question for Republicans is, Can a stripped-down, conservative banner carry the day?

Activists are testing this theory from northern New York to Florida to South Carolina and Utah, where ultra-conservatives are challenging old-fashioned mainstream conservatives.

National leaders -- foremost being Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh -- are aggressively rebuking GOP leaders for making too many compromises.

This month, grassroots leaders in South Carolina voted to censure their veteran Republican Senator Lindsey Graham for cooperating on bipartisan legislation with Democrats.

"U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham -- in the name of bipartisanship -- continues to weaken the Republican brand and tarnish the ideals of freedom, rule of law, and fiscal conservatism."

While the Democratic turmoil is a pretty traditional dust-up in American politics, conservative infighting represents a far more dangerous experiment for the GOP.

It's possible, of course, that Republicans will emerge as a lean, disciplined and united party, poised to capitalize on Democratic blunders.

Conservatives are once again testing their conviction that a 'silent majority' is waiting eagerly for a true and unambiguous right-of-center message.

But it's also possible that the GOP is drifting deeper into the kind of morass that swallowed Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, who won only 39% of the vote in 1968.

A true conservative, Goldwater was trounced and humiliated by that muddled, big-tent moderate Lyndon Johnson.