The Death of the Republican Party
I've come to a conclusion over the past few weeks. I think that the Republican party is on the verge of collapse. I don't come to this conclusion lightly rather, I came to it in light of a sequence of domino events that have been taking place over the past 2-3 years. The problem stems from the fact that the country's zeitgeist is swinging left, which is not too surprising seeing that every few years the zeitgeist starts to swing. However, why it's serious for the republicans is that they have positioned themselves into relying on an extreme base and taking advantage of the right-swinging zeitgeist over the 90's and early 2000's. This has locked extremeists in the party into the top leadership roles within the party and the very party image as a far-right party (in comparison to right wing parties in other countries which are much more centrist). Thus as the country starts to swing left the leadership of the Republicans don't move the party left with it but rather insist that the country has not moved ideologically nor has rejected any of their ideals. As a result, when the country continues its leftward swing the party consolidates and move further to the right alienating the middle ground voters and forcing the midline party members out as a sort of purifying ritual. This is where you see numbers like recent polls suggest, saying that while only 21% of the poopulation identifys themself as republican, 70% of republicans believe that the party is too centrist and needs to move further to the right.
The second issue that they face is that they are becoming increasingly backward as well as irrelevent. Further seperating themselves from mainstream american viewpoints. The party has become Anti-minority, Anti-worker, Anti-middleclass, and Anti-intellectual while at the same time Pro-torture, Pro-religious, Pro-invasion. Which is exactaly the opposite movement of the rest of the country. Their push on social issues that garnered their success in the 90's has been all but completely rejected by the majority of the population. Polls showing the country becoming less religious, and more accepting of rights for minorities as well as more open toward policies like ending the drug war.
The third thing (and in my opinion the biggest threat to the republicans) is that they have become extremely anti-intellectual. There is a general hatred and condemnation of anything that comes out of colleges or mainstream academia these days from the right. They label higher education as "liberal indoctrination" and support pulling their own children out of public schools. They support intelligent design over evolution, reject anything having to do with global climate change, condemn all modern social sciences. This kind of attitude is not going to get you very far politically and we're starting to see numbers that the republicans have lost an entire generation of today's students and youth who increasingly see their policies as old fashioned and outdated.
All in all I think that there will be in the comming years a fundemental shift in the right wing of this country. Either they will pull themselves back to the center or they are going to become increasing irrelevent in larger national politics and eventually die out as a party. I forsee a possible rise in the liberitarian or constitutional party, or some sort of breakaway by the fiscal conservatives from the social ones who are dragging down the entire movement. whatever happens I don't see the republicans, if they continue in their current direction, lasting more than 2 more election cycles. Their recent cession of 80 congressional seats in 2 election is staggering and is dwarfed only by their stubborn refusal to shift party direction. My prediction is that if they dont have a rallying candidate for the 2012 election, stick a fork in them, they're done.
The second issue that they face is that they are becoming increasingly backward as well as irrelevent. Further seperating themselves from mainstream american viewpoints. The party has become Anti-minority, Anti-worker, Anti-middleclass, and Anti-intellectual while at the same time Pro-torture, Pro-religious, Pro-invasion. Which is exactaly the opposite movement of the rest of the country. Their push on social issues that garnered their success in the 90's has been all but completely rejected by the majority of the population. Polls showing the country becoming less religious, and more accepting of rights for minorities as well as more open toward policies like ending the drug war.
The third thing (and in my opinion the biggest threat to the republicans) is that they have become extremely anti-intellectual. There is a general hatred and condemnation of anything that comes out of colleges or mainstream academia these days from the right. They label higher education as "liberal indoctrination" and support pulling their own children out of public schools. They support intelligent design over evolution, reject anything having to do with global climate change, condemn all modern social sciences. This kind of attitude is not going to get you very far politically and we're starting to see numbers that the republicans have lost an entire generation of today's students and youth who increasingly see their policies as old fashioned and outdated.
All in all I think that there will be in the comming years a fundemental shift in the right wing of this country. Either they will pull themselves back to the center or they are going to become increasing irrelevent in larger national politics and eventually die out as a party. I forsee a possible rise in the liberitarian or constitutional party, or some sort of breakaway by the fiscal conservatives from the social ones who are dragging down the entire movement. whatever happens I don't see the republicans, if they continue in their current direction, lasting more than 2 more election cycles. Their recent cession of 80 congressional seats in 2 election is staggering and is dwarfed only by their stubborn refusal to shift party direction. My prediction is that if they dont have a rallying candidate for the 2012 election, stick a fork in them, they're done.