To those outside the Republican Party, this primary season has been a circus–moon colonies, retardation inducing vaccines and a make believe city called Uzbecki-becki-becki-stan-stan—but underneath the spectacle seismic shifts are occurring, which will ultimately remake the political landscape.

To most rational people, Mitt Romney would be the obvious choice for nomination—having the money, the connections, the executive experience, the “look” and even a presidential sounding first name. But this is a post-Tea Party America, and the Republican base is adamant in its refusal to accept anything less than ideological purity. Thus the past seven months have witnessed a procession of Tea Party-approved not-Romneys, each less palatable to the general electorate than the last.

And while it’s been amusing to watch those candidates summarily implode, the fact that any (and all) of them have been able to legitimately challenge Romney, if only briefly in political polls, speaks to the current state of the GOP.

Rick Santorum, the latest challenger, would be difficult to take seriously for most Americans—even without his Google problems.

Here is a man, who believes that Islam is evil, that church and state should not necessarily be separated, that there is only one correct family configuration, that birth control is a sin and that women should be subservient to their husbands. He also supports making English the official language of the U.S., opposes any and all benefits for undocumented workers, and any sort of comprehensive immigration reform. His solution to immigration reform is to deport 11 million people and build a fence across the Mexican border.

Yet Santorum’s rhetoric, as extreme as it is to most, speaks directly to a significant American demographic: the white, working-class male. Largely Christian and socially conservative, he is on the losing side of the culture war, and he knows it. To him, his very way of life is under assault from every angle; it doesn’t matter that our culture has unfairly favored him in the past, what he sees now is everyone else gaining ground relative to him—women, minorities, non-Christians and homosexuals. His fear of the other is personified in the “birther” movement, in Proposition 8 and in Arizona’s SB 1070. All he wants is a return to his idealized memory of the way America used to be.

Santorum represents this fictionalized America better than anyone. He’s currently trailing Romney more than two to one in the delegate department, and is generally considered to have no credible path to the nomination. But he could possibly force a contested convention, where there is no clear nominee. In this scenario, the winner would be decided at the convention instead of by the general electorate.

And that’s when things would get really interesting. The convention would be a showdown between the big money, party leaders and the Republican base. Would the Tea Parties fall into line or would there be fireworks?

Romney would still almost certainly be the nominee, but he would likely be forced into cutting some sort of deal to attain the necessary delegates. It would probably mean making concessions to the far right wing of the party at a time when he absolutely needs to move back toward the center for the general election.

And, then what happens? Whether Romney wins or loses, the Tea Party folks have failed to “take back” the country. What if the economy remains stagnant? What happens as the inevitable march toward a white minority continues unabated?

What will the culture warriors do as they are dragged kicking and screaming into the 21 century amidst the rising tide of immigration and the waning of economic prospects? We’ll have to wait to find out, but it’s highly unlikely that they will go quietly into the night.