Even Hannity asked Ryan the other day if he was worried about amnesty creating a civil war within the party. This isn’t just some sentiment on FR.
They know.
They know.
That’s the worst part.
Like a Zuckerberg commercial telling you what it means to be a conservative, they think we’re all low information voters that can be dealt with between now and 2014 (or we’ll forget by then). Or worse, even if the threat of revolt is real to them, the threat of top donations drying up scares them more (just like the recent BSA board decision).
The bottom line here is that the GOP-e is trying to thread the needle between their donors and their rank and file supporters (not the same people). They are under enormous pressure from their donors to get this done. Unless they fear the loss of their supporters more than their donors (and that’s an uphill climb), this will pass.
In warfare it helps to demonize your enemies. Sadly, many within the GOP-e already do that with their own base. When push comes to shove, between their donors and their base, they already have the mindset that the base can shove it.