[quote=ocrenter]no, the demise of the GOP is definitely not a good thing.
moderates will continue their exit, leaving the party firmly and fully in the Christian Right. The Christian Right GOP will pick Palin for 2012, Obama wins 70% of the popular vote.
Two possibilities after the 2012 landslide:
#1. moderate Republicans regroup and form a new party of the center. GOP stays and linger on as a fringe party.
#2. moderate Republicans retake the party after the complete collapse, re-establishing the two party system. [/quote]
I would agree with this. Though tempermentally I’m firmly in the liberal camp, I also think that a healthy two party system is overall good for the country, and helps check excesses by one side.
However, this is a tempest of their own making. By moving further and further right, the GOP is making the same mistakes the Democrats did a generation earlier. The problem is not in their appeal to their base (after all, where is their base likely to go?), it’s in their appeal to the moderates. By moving further and further right, they alienate the moderates which eventually decide who governs.
I think the GOP have started believing their own kool-aid – their belief that their beliefs are the only ones that make any sense, and therefore that their loss of power is due to not following their ideology rigidly enough. They seem to believe that becoming MORE conservative is the answer, and that will draw people back to them.
