Here’s a suggestion for your morning reading and some discussion on the extinction of the GOP.
The good read is Morning Jolt by Jim Geraghty from the National Review Online.
You can sign up here. It’s free. Don’t be alarmed if it’s not delivered right away. Jim is on vacation until next week.
That howling you’re hearing; it’s coming from liberal extremists.
Actually, this is a good read for common sense liberals or liberals who want to make friends with common sense Republicans and conservatives.
The funny thing: both sides are wondering if using the term “common sense” is a contradiction in terms when mentioned with the opposing party.
It’s not.
And Jim Geraghty is good proof.
Sure, he will piss off liberals at times.
For instance, in his morning missive of March 20th, when Harry Reid killed Feinstein’s assault-weapons ban, Geraghty wrote:
Well, my liberal friends, if you’re not screaming bloody murder about Harry Reid today, then you’re revealing a lot about what really drives you — that deep down, you believe that only Republicans ought to be ashamed for disagreeing with you; the Democrats who oppose your priorities always have good reasons for doing so.
My take: yes, but the GOP has, at times, disapproved some of their own proposals just because Obama was for them.
Still, Geraghty is not situated in what I call the Ayatollah or Shia wing of the GOP.
He’s a political realist.
Also from the March 21st email, he talks about Obama who was once against missile defense programs, but now he’s installing one in Alaska.
“…the threats forcing last week’s about-face certainly lay to rest any remaining pretensions that Barack Obama could somehow solve proliferation problems that were too tough for George Bush.”
My take: I agree. Changing Iranian mullahs and North Korean military leaders will never happen. But Obama will limit our involvement in costly wars like the ones George Bush got us into.
Geraghty calms downtrodden GOPers who think the party will become extinct like the 1856 Whigs. Geraghty shows similar predictions – including one made by William F. Buckley, Jr. — back in 1974.
Geraghty applauds RNC Chairman Reince Preibus for launching the RNC’s Growth and Opportunity Project to attack the problems facing the party.
Using a series of articles and reports, Geraghty lays out the problems for the GOP:
- Demographics: GOP is old, white, and male.
- Geographic: GOP dominates the south leaving them electorally challenged on a national level
- Issues: GOP is out of touch with the mainstream on same-sex marriage, immigration, and tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
Geraghty correctly points out that the GOP is out of favor today like the Democrats were in 1988 when Dukakis was crushed by the first George Bush, but rebounded with Bill Clinton.
The problem, Geraghty points out, is that the GOP is out of ideas and lacks a strong leader to take the mantle like Ronald Reagan did when the Democrats were clueless economically in 1980.
National party committees can do many things, but mostly they have to do with raising money and the mechanics of turning out voters. They are not idea factories. Nor have many elected officials stepped forward to lead the effort.
My takes:
- The GOP isn’t going anywhere.
- The GOP will flounder as a national party for at least four more years for the reasons Geraghty mentions.
- But the GOP has these four things to look forward to:
- Democrats will get fat and stupid like they did in 1980, 1994, and 2010. They will live off their political successes — like 1976, 1992, and 2008 — and then fail to see the changes coming.
- Those young voters who are now Democrats will age and become Republicans wanting a new order in government and spending.
- Hispanic voters, at their core, are conservative and religious and will eventually move right to the new GOP.
- Issues like immigration and same-sex marriage will be in the rear-view mirror and no longer hot button issues that make the GOP look like hypocrites.
OK time for your take.
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