The Future of the Republican Party

This just in: The Republican Party as we know it is finished. And thank god. It's become such a weird patchwork of conflicting ideologies and oddball pretenders that I don't see how anyone can take them seriously anymore. There was a time when that party had some respectability, some class, some dignity. But it's to a point now where you can look down the entire list of Republican candidates and not see a single face that you could conceivably imagine winning the Presidential race this Fall.

In my opinion, the GOP will eventually split into two groups: A.) The Bible-thumpers, Tea-Partiers, and other assorted whacked-out fringe types, and B.) the small-government fiscal conservative types who are essentially rational people and who don't care about social issues like abortion and gay marriage.

Group A will ride off into the sunset and become completely ineffectual in national elections and increasingly less effectual at state and local ones. Group B will flounder for a while as it tries to maintain its footing financially and politically without the wackos...but it will, eventually, evolve back into a legitimate organization that has at least a chance of putting someone in the White House. They'll still be wrong, but I'll at least be able to take them seriously again.

It'll be kind of interesting to watch this happen. It'll either have to be some kind of grass-roots movement, like the Tea-Party but with more moderate ideals, or else it'll come from a major decision at the national party level. My sense is it might actually have to be the former, because at the national party level there will be too many already-entrenched politicians who are too worried about abandoning their far-right electoral bases to make any kind of real change.

The good news is, until they get their stuff sorted out they're going to be weak and disorganized. It'll be a chance for the Democratic party to hopefully get on the same page and get some things done in Congress. But, we'll have to wait and see.

One thing's for sure tho: The Republican party cannot survive in its current form. It's only hope is to move closer to the center and try to attract middle-of-the-road Democrats again as Reagan did in the 80s. If they don't do this, then they're going to shrink and shrink until there's nothing left of them.