The GOP is blowing it again

The Republican Party is in worse trouble than anyone could have imagined.

Videos are beginning to surface of angry conservative mobs assailing congresspeople — and this time some of the targets are Republicans.

This video shows embattled lawmaker Bob Inglis (R-SC) urging his audience to turn off the TV when right-wing talk show host Glenn Beck comes on.

“I’m afraid of Obama!” a woman cries.

“Why are you afraid?” Rep. Inglis replies, prompting howls. Of Glenn Beck, Inglis says, “He’s trading on fear.”

“If you want to lead, stop being fearful,” he adds, but the crowd shouts him down.

Inglis has a point, but he also has it backwards.

The GOP has a big opportunity right now. A lot of Americans are dubious about the Obama Administration’s plan to run up historic new deficits.

New doubts are also emerging about President Obama’s ability to manage the economy and high unemployment.

But Americans won’t vote for a political movement led by talk show hosts and symbolized by shouting mobs.

They won’t support politicians who wink at conspiracy theorists.

Democrats learned this painful lesson in 1968 when activists disrupted the convention in Chicago.

That debacle ushered in the era of Nixon, which quickly gave way to the era of Reagan.

The problem with Inglis’ crowd isn’t that they’re fearful, it’s that they’re frightening.

Unless centrist Republicans demand that their leadership rein in the increasingly nutty wing of their party, a political opening will be missed.

So here’s my prediction:

If Republicans knock off the silliness and if unemployment remains high next year, the GOP will pick up 2-4 Senate seats.

But if the birthers and the Beckites and the ditto-heads are still the vanguard and the public face of the GOP, Republicans will lose half a dozen Senate seats.