Is the Republican Party finished?

[ck4829]

Two disastrous elections
Jindal flops
Rush and Steele have a feud

Let's think about the future of the Republican Party for a moment.

[eleny]

1. They're on life support right now but I wouldn't count them out

The collapsing economy leaves their coffers and credibility dry at this point. But they'll claw their way back.

[lob1]

2. The pubs will be done when there are no lies left to tell.

[tekisui]

3. They are no longer a party. The one thing they had going for them

was lockstep/goosestep loyalty.

Raygun's 11th commandment, "never speak ill of another repuke" has died. That is where their strength was, and it is gone. They are now a coalition of religious wackos, uber-rich tax cutters and bigots.

[ReliantJ]

4. No,

this is just the cycle of politics. Let's hope we can do enough good, though, so it nation doesn't get put on life support

[spanone]

5. republicans do not care one whit about america. they care about republicans

[Edweird]

6. As long as there are greedy selfish rich people the R party will be around...

[moundsview]

7. Just as dead as they were after Nixon/Ford

Those that don't know history are doomed to repeat it.

[FLAprogressive]

8. never count those greedy little fuckers out.

[FiveGoodMen]

9. Turn your back on the enemy at your own peril.

[Motown_Johnny]

10. If we can get to 60 Senators in 2010 then the Repugs will be done

That is the fork.

Until then they are on life support

[Still Sensible]

11. Not finished, but I don't think the party you see today

can be rejuvenated in its present form. What is left is a very angry right wing coalition of fundamentalists, supply siders and neocons. Their solid base is around 30% of the electorate and seems to be shrinking.

The supply siders have really been calling the shots for three decades in the party, paying lip service to the fundamentalists and libertarians. When the neocons got their way under Bush II, they left the supply siders alone and went and did their own thing with the MIC--which was just fine with the supply siders because many of their business interests would make a lot of money off of the neocon agenda.

Both of those groups have basically paid lip service to the fundamentalists. Oh, they say the right kool aid drinking things and smile at them when they come to visit, but they never had any intention of seriously pursuing the evangelical agenda. Besides, where the fuck else were the fundies supposed to go? So Rove and Co. made sure to get a few anti-abortion or anti-gay marriage initiatives on the ballot every two years so the fundies would feel like someone was paying attention.

Meanwhile the libertarians, which for a long time were a core constituency of the GOP basically got kicked to the curb, as Ron Paul can attest. But of the many who considered themselves libertarians, quite a few were pretty selective in what liberties they had in mind--and those were also fundies. So, the GOP under Rove-Bush-Cheney felt like they could piss on liberty because the fundie part of that group would still hang around.

The funny thing is, I see the country's political pendulum swinging ever so slowly and deliberately back to the left... of course only a little. But it is going to be very hard for the angry coalition that is left in the republican party to get back into power without listening to some good advice some people have been trying to give them. Bill Clinton told them to work with the new administration, knowing full well they wouldn't listen to him. Jeb Bush told them they have to broaden their demographic base and be more inclusive of minorities, especially hispanics.

But the bigoted, southern-strategy bound cronies that are left are unlikely to take that advice either. So unless the Obama Administration implodes and fails spectacularly, I don't expect the GOP to be anywhere close to controlling the government for a while... until they get some moderate blood back into their fold--the "Rockefeller Republicans" of the 60s and 70s come to mind... and Ike was actually fairly moderate himself as republicans go. I just think they've tasted unfettered power when Reagan came along, then Newt's takeover of Congress, then the Bush II nine eleven fear driven full Monty... so this evil bunch may not want to settle for less for a long, long time.

[Jack Rabbit]

12. No, but not for the reasons given for no

It will take the GOP a while to recover from the down slide they are currently experiencing. Following Rush Limbaugh's prescription for a return to political health will make it take that much longer.

Nevertheless, Ronald Reagan is now irrelevant. He really has been since the early nineties, when his successor had to swallow his pride and raise taxes to pay for Ronnie Baby's red ink, but the myth lived on that he was a great president. Of course, he wasn't all that great; his greatness was a trick performed by a PR firm with blue smoke and mirrors. He's dead. Let him rot in his grave.

No, the GOP will come back because the "other" party, seemingly irrelevant and ready to go the way of the Federalist and Whigs, always makes a comeback. In a two-party system, both parties are necessarily big tents, which is why the GOP will stay in the wilderness as long as they listen to Rush or any other right wing moron who doesn't believe in big tents. One can make a good case for low taxes and small government, but not for no taxes and starving the beast. Instead, the GOP will come back with a different message than the one Rush is trying sell now, which is essentially the same one that Bush and Cheney sold while working their way to historical disrepute. Hopefully, it will be more Eisenhower, the Republican who made peace with the New Deal, rather than Reagan, the Republican who tried to renew the war on it.

Except the New Deal with which the Republicans will come to terms sixteen or twenty years from now won't be FDR's, but Obama's.