An earlier post today I gave my readers a look at the most recent polls and the candidates and I found another article that kinda goes along with my earlier piece……even conservatives are not too optimistic on the future of the GOP…………
I have read Red State for many years now……I have mixed emotions about Erickson….there are times when he is very insightful and then he drifts off into the never-never land of the nutty professor…..
I recently read a piece in Red State that I feel I need to pass on to my readers……this is one of those occasions that I agree with Erickson…….unless the GOP gets its stuff together it will be a party from the past..
Both Ross Douthat and I have concluded that the Republican Party is set to learn the wrong lessons from the rise of Donald Trump. The party, as we know it, is going to die because the party leadership is incapable of changing. We should examine part of this from one side that rarely gets mentioned — consultants. The consultant class within the GOP has arranged | Read More »
Source: Naming Names: A More Precise Look at Why The Republican Party is Dying | RedState
After reading this let me know what you think……is the GOP a dying party?
Some relevant historical context here.
After seeing what 3rd party candidate George Wallace did in 1968 (winning or a close 2nd in almost every Southern state), the Republican Party married The Southern Strategy. Less noticed was that Wallace did surprising well among young males and blue collar workers. A little softening of Wallace’s message and add a lovable, gun slinging, cowboy and…Reagan Democrats! The rest is history.
Since 75% of Republicans alive today voted in 1968 (1908 surely?), and since Republicans, unlike Democrats, stick to their principles…Republicans are married to racism & stupidity..till death do they part. Literally. For anything to change, Republicans will have to die AND be replaced by younger, less radical ones. But every generation since the Raygun Revolution has gotten more radical and more intransigent and it hasn’t really hurt them. But win or lose, the goalposts keep moving to the right. Besides, in a rigged 2 party state, there’s no such thing as divorce (3rd party), so neither Republican spouse has anywhere better to go.
Now the (dys) functionality. Conservatives & The Powers That Be have realized that they don’t have to win elections to win anymore. Losing election “battles” don’t matter because, as Warren Buffett says, “the war” is already won. At this point, their only enemy is a properly functioning Democracy…and unicorns! Stalemate is as good as victory. So Republicans can get as crazy as they wanna be because:
1)There are only 2 parties. If enough people are just tired of looking at Democrats’ faces…ta-da! Don’t laugh. It’s the number one force that drives political change.
2) The House is so gerrymandered, it’s almost impossible for Republicans to lose The House. Even if they do, they can still count on some Red State Democrats to vote their way. Thanks to the bullshit “Filibuster Rule”, all the Republicans need is 40 Senators to get their way there. So, in order for Democrats to actually win votes, they need a lot more Democrats than Republicans need to win votes. Stalemate is victory.
3a) Democrats are pussies. They can “win” in landslides and still figure out a way to lose. Look at Obamacare. The best scenario they’re ever going to get (President, House & Senate majorities) and all they could crank out was a re-heated gruel of a “reform”. They folded because a bunch of angry old farts got up and called them bad names. Boo-hoo!
3b) Democrats can also be bought. Especially when it costs so much to win elections and they’re worried about their after-politics income.
4) More & more of the important stuff happens in secret, or is agreed upon. (ie Foreign policy, financial industry) So it matters not what party is in larger numbers.
So, even if a Democrat is President for the foreseeable future thanks to “Republican self-destruction”, it won’t matter much in the overall picture. Republicans themselves may not win, but the Republican cause will continue to win for at least another 15-20 years…or until America gets less stupid and more politically involved. (Unicorns again!)
“Winning takes sacrifice” and, unlike Democrats, Republicans are willing to sacrifice themselves for their cause.
Great comment and everything written is true…..the next census may help the gerrymandering thing……but that will depend on who controls what….yep the voter is the key and they do not seem to be capable of grasping complexities…….it is all about the flash….
Erickson is a perfect case study of why the Republican party is doomed. He actually, every once in awhile, writes something reasonable about how the Republican needs to expand its appeal and get away from only appealing to the angry white voter. Only problem is that he doesn’t appear to support any positions or policies that would actually appeal to anybody other than the angry white voter. Hence the problem for the Republican Party — as much as they pay lip service to the idea of the Big Tent, they are incapable of actually putting that tent up because it would cause them to flee from their principles.
I agree……some times he has some good insights and then he goes back to the birther thing or some other wild accusation……
OK. Now I’ve read the Erickson piece you linked to. What a bunch of crap. The Republican Party is dying because the consultants are a bunch of money-grubbing pigs and the Republican Party won’t do anything about it??? Seriously? This has nothing to do with consultants, except to the extent they’re advising their clients to continue down the path the Republican Party has been going down for years now.
Money….it is always about the cash with the GOP, huh?