Time magazine, which is generally considered the more conservative of the pair of weekly news magazines, hits the nail on the head in next week’s cover story:
“As the party has shrunk to its base, it has catered even more to its base’s biases, insisting that the New Deal made the Depression worse, carbon emissions are fine for the environment and tax cuts actually boost revenues — even though the vast majority of historians, scientists and economists disagree. The RNC is about to vote on a kindergartenish resolution to change the name of its opponent to the Democrat Socialist Party. This plays well with hard-core culture warriors and tea-party activists convinced that a dictator-President is plotting to seize their guns, choose their doctors and put ACORN in charge of the Census, but it ultimately produces even more shrinkage, which gives the base even more influence — and the death spiral continues.”
It is a vicious cycle the Republican Party has placed itself into. And it has already lead to an entire generation of Americans being lost to the party, and now they are going through a purge, led by El Jefe, Rush Limbaugh, that seeks to cast out all remaining moderates that have not already left of their own accord (i.e. what Rush is doing right now to Colin Powell and John McCain (indeed that is strange, since Rush’s main complaint with Powell is that he voted for Obama over McCain, but Rush wants McCain gone too. I guess Rush is just insane)).