(H/t Josh Gillespie) I think the proclamation of death for the GOP is premature, but it certainly isn’t inspiring fear the way it used to. (Though, there are plenty of Democrats out there who seem to have a political equivalent of battered spouse syndrome; cringing at the thought that Republicans might do something mean to them and acting timidly as a result.)
In any event, Jim VandeHei and Alexander Burns have an article entitled “Why the GOP fell so far, so fast.” I don’t think it so much tells us why as tells us what. The GOP’s think tanks are weakening, low dollar fund raising has diminished, and embrace of the Internet has been relatively slow.
I don’t know that it’s all that complicated. The Republican leadership got corrupt and the conservative ideals it did implement, by and large, didn’t work very well. The grass roots activists don’t like them very well, and the independents who used to settle a tie in favor of the GOP are now breaking the other way.
I suspect the Democrats will come in, get a couple of things done, then get mired down in the minutiae of governing and getting reelected. Meanwhile, the GOP will reinvent itself to some degree, and the circle will repeat — thesis, antithesis, synthesis.
Hegel before 5pm? Mein Gott!
Maybe I should quote some Starship Troopers just to balance things out?
Shoot! (so to speak)
Doug:
You are right about premature predictions. But, let’s face it. The GOP is on fumes much like the Democrats were at this point in 1980 after a decent 48-year run that was sustained by major crises: Depression, WWII and the early Cold War. The GOP is done for now, but I would be surprised if there was a large scale Democratic realignment simply because we face no imminent crisis right now. Politico’s analysis reveals a truth — 9/11 was not the transformative event people thought it would be. No GOP realignment, and, conversely, no dramatic Democratic restoration.