noblepa wrote: ↑Tue Sep 05, 2023 5:42 pmI share your assessment of the current state of what used to be the Republican party. I never thought I would think of the Ronald Reagan/John Behner era as "the good old days".Gregg wrote: ↑Tue Sep 05, 2023 5:23 pm The Republican Party is in a death spiral, it might not last past the 2024 election.
With each day the base gets more irrationally radical, pushing away what is left of a right-center membership and making it improbable that they they can ever win any fair elections. Even in red states their power is amplified or even propped up by stupid political tricks that cannot endure. Take Wisconsin, where statewide races are close contests, yet through extreme gerrymandering Republicans' have veto proof majorities in both houses and until this year had the majority of the State Supreme Court that allowed it. When a Liberal was elected to the Supreme Court this year, changing the majority control, Republicans began impeachment proceedings even before she had heard her first case.
Americans are sick of it, sick of the fighting and sick of a party that proves to them every day that yes they can go even lower. The Democrats might have problems, but the Republicans are doomed. Proving once again that everything Trump touches, dies, even 160 year old political parties.
However, I'm not as sure of the prognosis. People were making similar predictions after Richard Nixon resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal, but the party bounced back, and not because their policies changed all that much. Peoples' memories of RMN just faded and new personalities came on the scene, such as the aforementioned Reagan and Behner. Tax cuts for the rich and the "Southern Strategy" never left the R's psyche.
The R's may not elect a President for a few election cycles, but they will continue to elect jackasses like emptygee and bobblehead. They will continue to control state legislatures through blatant gerrymandering.
Life will return to normal. The next time we have a recession or high unemployment while a democrat is in the WH, some republican will come along proposing massive tax cuts for the rich as a way to put America back "on the right track". This, even though, you, as an economist, know better than most of us, that the President doesn't have as much direct and immediate control over the economy as many people think he/she does. When the economy is good, the Prez gets to take the undeserved credit for it and when it is bad he/she gets more blame than warranted. But the opposing party will always take advantage of this phenomenon.
I strongly disagree and also too challenge your memory that some said Nixon was destroying the party. The crucial difference here is there came a point where the GOP Leadership told Nixon he had to go, quite firmly. And he went. If Nixon had had Fox News and Kevin McCarthy he would have died Dictator for Life..
The reason the GOP is going to die, and it is going to die, is because it's been taken over by the loonies and we are very close to the point where the loonies are not only going to be the only ones left, but they will not tolerate anyone not as loony as them to stay. That is happening and it's going to be a painful and abrupt slap in the face when they realize that not enough people to sustain a viable party are fucking loony and they've run off everyone who isn't. Even then there will be a bunch of them that think the only reason they lost (and lost by historic margins in places where they haven't fixed the conditions to assure they can't lose) is because it was stolen or they didn't have enough flag on their boats and pickup trucks.
@Orly_licious 1s
s titular Mama June in Fogbow's Favourite Show™ Mama June: From Not To Hot! Fogbow's Theme Song™ Edith Massey's "I Got The Evidence!" 
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