What’s Next for the GOP?
Will the Republican leadership get together for some Bill Clinton-style soul searching to see what’s next for their party or will that curl up in a fetal position, hands covering their ears and screaming, “No, no, no, no, no”?
Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman hypothesizes the latter in his recent column, The Republican Rump.
. . . the Republican base already seems to be gearing up to regard defeat not as a verdict on conservative policies, but as the result of an evil conspiracy. A recent Democracy Corps poll found that Republicans, by a margin of more than two to one, believe that Mr. McCain is losing “because the mainstream media is biased” rather than “because Americans are tired of George Bush.”
Could the GOP base be that bullheaded? Krugman says that the Democratic gains in the Senate and the House will be loses for the Republican moderates.
Why will the G.O.P. become more, not less, extreme? For one thing, projections suggest that this election will drive many of the remaining Republican moderates out of Congress, while leaving the hard right in place.
He goes on to write what I truly believe that the Republican Party will become the party of intolerance.
But the G.O.P.’s long transformation into the party of the unreasonable right, a haven for racists and reactionaries, seems likely to accelerate as a result of the impending defeat.
This will pose a dilemma for moderate conservatives. Many of them spent the Bush years in denial, closing their eyes to the administration’s dishonesty and contempt for the rule of law. Some of them have tried to maintain that denial through this year’s election season, even as the McCain-Palin campaign’s tactics have grown ever uglier. But one of these days they’re going to have to realize that the G.O.P. has become the party of intolerance.
One can only hope that the GOP moderates fight back and regain the soul of the Republican Party. Though even in Delaware, it appears that Republicans are losing that battle with the rise of a young Delawarean politican named John Clatworthy.
Tags: Republicans
If the media is so biased, how is that 28 of the past 40 years the republicans have won the White House. If it was the other way around I might buy it. They also controlled Congress during Clinton’s presidency and for six years of Bush’s. Blaming the media is the whining of losers who can’t stomach reality: the republicans complete and utter failure to govern this country responsibly. Republicans, for all their talk about personal responsibility, can’t take it when they lose.
I think it’s going to take the Republicans a while to decide what they’re going to be. They’ve already been kicking out the moderates. The Republican Party will be a Palin-type party for a while until they figure out that their policies aren’t popular and that’s why they lost.
So, I completely agree with Krugman. The Republicans are doing some soul-searching but they’re coming up with the wrong answers. Until they figure out the right answer it will be a while before they get back into power. The Republicans are becoming a regional party.
As far as I am concerned, it’s all local to me anymore. The RNC is a friggin’ joke that only knows how to push a figurative nuke button.
The Republican Party doesn’t stand a chance until it kicks out its religious litmus test. Right now it’s almost all it has left. Look at who’s enthusiastically supporting the PALIN/mccain ticket and you’ll find the problem.
Palin 2012
“Let the irrelevancy begin!”
or
“A Region Party You Can Believe in!”
Not for nothing, but the Republican Party had this exact conversation at roughly this time about 4 years ago.
You were just being silly. We are being serious.
FSP, how did that work out for y’all?
Probably about as well as it will work out for y’all.
Man,. You were serious about the deadline. Can I still play? We’re busy at DTR.
President:
Obama/Biden W
McCain/Palin
US Senate:
Joe Biden W
Christine O’Donnell
Delaware Governor:
Jack Markell W
Bill Lee
US House of Reps.
Karen Hartley-Nagle
Michael Newbold Castle W
Delaware Lt. Governor:
Matt Denn W
Charles Copeland
Del. Insurance Commissioner
Karen Weldin Stewart
John Brady W
Delaware Senate
Michael Katz (D) W
John Clatworthy (R)
10th Senate
Bethany Hall-Long (D) W
Jim Weldin (R)
17th Senate
Brian Bushweller (D) W
James Hutchison (R)
7th House
Bryon Short (D) W
Jim Bowers (R)
8th House
Quinn Johnson (D) W
Martha Sturtevant (R)
9th House
Rebecca Walker (D)
Dick Cathcart (R) W
18th House
Mike Barbieri (D) W
Terry Spence (R)
21st House
Pat Creedon (D) W
Michael Ramone (R)
22nd House
Rebecca Young (D) W
Joe Miro (R)
27th House
Earl Jaques (D) W
Vince Lofink (R)
31st House
Darryl Scott (D)
Nancy Wagner (R) W
32nd House
Brad Bennett (D) W
Donna Stone (R)
35th House
Aaron Chaffinch (D)
David Wilson (R) W
41st House
John Atkins (Drunk)
Greg Hastings (R) W
Obama/Biden % of popular vote*:___54___
Obama/Biden Electoral College vote*:_322_____
We’re busy at DTR.
Doing what? Trying to figure out how to stay ahead of me in football?
Maybe trying to teach John and Gerry how to use that control board? 😆
You are in Randy.
FSP, you sound almost gleeful that the Republicans trashed the place.
We cleaned up after you in ’96 and made it better than we found it by ’00. Looks like we have to repeat the process again.
Hmm…I take interest in Nelson’s prediction of Hastings winning. I have respoct for his feel of both sides and the goings on there. Maybe there is some hope!!!
“We cleaned up after you in ‘96 and made it better than we found it by ‘00. ”
By we, you mean, of course, a moderate Democrat and a Republican Congress. And you probably mean 1992, but you might want to skip those first two years.
Cut the kids in half followed by a self-righteous suicide.
…wonder how many more song references I can come up with….
But seriously, Conservatism means something different to each person, as well as each passing generation. Lose the SkyDad bullshit, dump the stupid wedge-issues, and become a party of inclusion.
Conservatism and GOP doesn’t mean ‘fiscal responsibility’ any more; that belongs to no one (though looking at the historical numbers, only the dems seem to fit the bill – again, action, not words).
So what else is there? A sledgehammer instead of a scalpel Foreign Policy? Yeah, that will win your already fractured and decreasing base, nothing else.