Is Something BIG Coming? A Future Without the Republican Party?

[Blackhatjack]

So many political commentators expect today's Republican Party to survive the present swoon and eventually come back to power.

OF course, political parties have disappeared in the past after a period of disasterous results.

Given that the Leaders of the Republican Party appear to be drawing nearer to the tea partiers and right wing fundamentalists, their base is bound to shrink rather than grow. And as they 'purify' their candidates and force out more moderate candidates, they certainly appear to be taking the path of political oblivion.

IF the present political framework had not already been in place to insure a 'two party system' I suspect the Republican Party might already be gone.

The question then becomes "What Political Party and new political framework will be coming along to take its place?"

That my fellow Democrats might just be the real question we should be considering today.

Tied up in the answer to this query is the outcome of all progressive issues we must address in the next 2 decades.

What do you think? Is Something BIG COMING ????

[B Calm]

1. I think we've been witnessing the fall of the GOP for the last few years.

[roguevalley]

48. think no nothings and the whigs. :)

[xultar]

2. And the rise of the Tea Party? I'd rather take the GOP.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

3. The problem with any loss of the GOP --

is that the saner ones will flock to the Democrats (like we have been experiencing) and further turn the Party from its cuurent platform.

How many anti-choice Dems can the Party handle before Roe is even more seriously effected?

How do we pass GLBT rights with so many GOPers in our tent?

We are already infested to an almost crippling degree with ex-GOPers -- how much more can the Democratic Party stand before it is completely compromised?

[Sebastian Doyle]

5. Yep. Losing the "Republican Party" brand name means nothing

...when the "Democratic Party" carries on with a right wing agenda :evilfrown:

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

26. The Bluedogs are not going any where anytime soon.

[laughingliberal]

25. I was just thinking something similar last night

I remember when the media was talking years ago about the 'Reagan Democrats' coming home. I think a lot of our problems, today, are due to them coming home and bringing Reagan with them.

[bvar22]

37. how much more can the Democratic Party stand ?

Its already too late.
Has been since 1992.
Hopelessly co-opted by Corporate money.

[lpbk2713]

4. If it wasn't for Limbaugh & Beck and the other RW Hatemongers ...

giving them a false sense of hope the Greedy Obstructionist Party would have been gone long ago.

[Speck Tater]

6. I think that for a while there will be the Deomcratic party and ...

an assortment of small opposition parties who won't be able to muster the cooperation or compromise to join together as a single party. There will still be conservatives in Congress, but not a single, monolithic conservative party.

[Prism]

7. They're being marginalized in a completely novel way

We're passing http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Graphics/2010/022310-Bill-comparison.aspx">their policies for them. Eventually, people might start wondering why they're needed at all.

Big Tent? Pft. At this point, we're practically the whole campground.

[Xithras]

8. A Republican party fall would likely lead to a splintering of the Democratic Party as well.

A large portion of the Democratic Party supports it simply because the alternative party is far worse. If the Republican Party were to cease to exist, that persistent threat would be removed (at least temporarily) and we would probably see large numbers of Democrats either tune out or go third party. When the worst-case-scenario becomes a Democratic victory, it frees voters up to look elsewhere.

Ultimately, however, we'd return to a two party system. Our government is designed to operate as a two party system, and it's hard to envision our electoral system permitting any more than two parties from holding power for any real length of time. What those parties would be, and who's interests they would represent, are anybody's guess.

[Ex Lurker]

19. very astute observation n/t

[leftstreet]

46. This is precisely why Obama started his Administration with 'bipartisanship'

:puke:

The Dems and M$M have been desperately propping up the Republican party since the election

[Oregone]

9. Who needs em?

I mean, afterall, the Democrats just willingly passed a reform the was historically favored by the Republicans

[Walk away]

10. I don't know how soon it's happening but....

They are basically going to cut their own balls off when we start dealing with the immigration issue. How can you win a majority when you have completely alienated what will eventually be half the country.

They won't be able to help themselves. Most republicans are racist to the bone. They think it's normal to hate anyone who isn't white and christian.

[anigbrowl]

11. Unlikely

Even if the GOP does fall apart, there will still be a conservative political movement. The right-wing is not going to simply evaporate.

[Echo In Light]

12. From Power's POV, the system requires both parties to stave off legitimate democratic interference

... so I wouldn't count on the GOP dissipating

[AlinPA]

13. The republican party and the teabaggers are the same party. The teabaggers are simply

the loudest part of their party at this time. We should not fool ourselves, when the election day comes, there won't be any difference between them.

[Tesha]

14. If the Republican Party actually collapses...

...or becomes a rump regional party (representing only the Christian
South and *MAYBE* the mountain West), watch the DLC and the Blue
Dogs step-in to fill the gap. They'll say "Adios, Dems!" and form a
center-right party.

Tesha

[Cognitive_Resonance]

15. If the GOP does poorly in the 2010 mid-terms

I expect they will split. The nutbag true believers will likely try to go third party. A diminished and further discredited GOP may remain to continue pursuing the Corporatist agenda. The only thing holding it together now is the hate and fear. One more big disappointment and the factured groups will be at each others throats.

[lunatica]

16. The changes will be fundamental and the paradigm shift will be huge

in ten or fifteen years we will have a very different country than we do now. I say this because this country has to change as do all the developing countries just to save the planet. If we don't change we will die.

[divvy]

17. The Democratic Party will split LONG before the GOP

This thread (IMO) is like totally out of touch with reality. Republicans have strong party discipline. They vote as a block. They are lemmings who march lock-step with their leaders. They bristle against unique thought.

Our party, on the other hand, is dying from intellectual pride. Oh, we are sooo smart. Oh we have to be above all that. Oh how we love our tweed hats and fringe members like Nadir. Oh how we love to prance about and sip our Vente Latte's. Aren't we the unique and special ones.

Face it, we don't stick together even on the best of days. The GOP manages to do it during their worst. This risk is ours and our base is falling apart all around us.

[PCIntern]

29. Interesting post...

[starroute]

30. What's a tweed hat?

I assume I've never heard of a Vente Latte because I don't hang out at Starbucks with the gun-lovers. But I'd think I should have heard of tweed hats somewhere along the line. Can you point me to an example of a tweed hat-wearer?

[eShirl]

32. "tweed hats" "prance about" step away from the bong, dude

[WI_DEM]

18. No. The GOP and Dems have been written off many times before and they aren't going anywhere.

[Ozymanithrax]

20. If the Republcan party should cease to exist, another conservative party will take its place.

[trocar]

21. They're not going away

The GOP might morph into different things but they will continue to work for cutting taxes, fear and anger

[AlinPA]

36. ..and hatred.

[elocs]

22. Demographics will doom Republicans eventually.

The day is coming when whites in this country will be a minority. A very large minority, but still a minority. With the GOP record with blacks and Hispanics they don't have much to look forward to.

[sabrina 1]

23. How about a real Progressive Party?

You ask:

The question then becomes "What Political Party and new political framework will be coming along to take its place?"

The current Democratic Party has been pretty much taken over by its right-wing DLC faction.

The current Republican Party went so far to the right that it makes this new Republican Lite Party look rational.

The country is now without a party that represents the interests the Dem Party used to represent, labor, the poor, immigrants, women, minorities etc.

Both parties have been pretty much taken over by Big Business ~

If the Republican Party does disappear the Democratic Party will swing even more to the right. And that will leave a huge vacuum for those who are sick and tired of rightwing policies.

[The Wielding Truth]

24. I think they will grab hold of themselves and boot out the tea party.

The discreet repubs are too full of themselves to admit the unwashed loud and lower working class uneducated baggers. The Teabaggers will be used by only for the dirty work then they will be dismissed quietly. If you have seen them through the years you will see how they work. The Republican party will not disappear and they won't let the power go to the Palinlike crowd. The big change on their side will be conservative business control,which came in many years ago.

I will not like it either, but it will be more palatable and less violent.

[AlinPA]

35. IMO, the republicans and teabaggers are the same thing. No difference at all. Teabaggers are

republicans that spit on people and act like assholes.

[The Wielding Truth]

44. hmm...I don't think that baggers are thoughtful enough, but I can see

what you mean.

[deaniac21]

27. Yes. They will get killed in November!

[MikeE]

28. I've been wishing for them to be gone

since Reagan

[DCBob]

31. Repubs have royally f'kd up on the HCR bill...

This could be devastating in November and have long term impact.

[Motown_Johnny]

33. If we could pick up a couple seats in each house this cycle instead of losing some it would

test just how strong the (R)s are

Another defeat could send contributers fleeing, and once the money dries up they got nothing.

[bunny planet]

34. Can we just call them the Whig II party

[conscious evolution]

38. If it wasn't for Diebold I would agree.

As long as they control the vote counting they will still be around.

[libtodeath]

39. I know the media thinks otherwise

but I just have a gut feeling that now that the battle for the bill is over the mpre they draw this out and try to fight it they will only look even more silly and childish.

[MilesColtrane]

40. The Citizens United SC decision alone ensures that the GOP and It's corporate backers...

aren't going away anytime soon.

Don't mistake the rightward shift of the Democratic party and the subsequent pickup of a few moderate Republican votes as the death knell of the GOP.

During bad economic times people jump ship. Most Reagan Democrats came home to the party after 12 years of a union busting screw job by the pompadoured zombie and his wimpy VEEP.

[Nikki Stone1]

41. Sure. The Democratic party is replacing it as we speak.

Perhaps the GOP will go all the way to fascism. And Glenn Beck can spell his insane little head off.

[leeroysphitz]

42. We don't need a replacement for the republican party. The dems are taking great caee of the wealthy

these days.

[eppur_se_muova]

43. Why haven't the Libertarians taken more ground? I've wondered about that.

Libertarians, as a PARTY, have been around for a few decades now, and have had some success in local elections. Here's some interesting discussion -- started by someone from the Cato Institute, but citing studies by a more liberal group, and with some interesting comments posted by others:
http://volokh.com/2010/01/21/the-libertarian-vote-2/
After thinking about it, I've tentatively concluded that Libertarians are more or less opposed to everything that really makes political parties parties -- they act as individual atoms, but never join a larger body, because they are by nature non-joiners.

I would really hope that a consequence of Libertarian centripetal tendencies is that a Progressive Party would be the most likely third party, although even a showing by the Socialists could be the thin end of the wedge that splits the two-party stranglehold. :hope:

[ThoughtCriminal]

45. They have been on the brink before

71st Congress (1929-1931)
Majority Party: Republican (56 seats)
Minority Party: Democrat (39 seats)
Other Parties: 1 Farmer-Labor
Total Seats: 96

75th Congress (1937-1939)
Majority Party: Democrat (76 seats)
Minority Party: Republican (16 seats)
Other Parties: 2 Farmer-Labor; 1 Progressive; 1 Independent
Total Seats: 96

Post WW-2 the Democratic Party did see a split with the "Dixiecrats". Eventually, the GOP Republicans captured the segregationist vote with the "Southern Strategy", but now it all they really have left.

[rucky]

47. They've got the SCOTUS decision and the media propping them up.

They'll be zombies as long as we live.

[Kablooie]

49. The GOP will stay around. Every government needs a court jester to keep things lively.

[spanone]

50. haven't you been listening to the media? they are gonna win everything in the mid-terms

[B Calm]

51. gonna be a lot of pissed off republicans this fall. . .

[Strelnikov_]

52. Always gonna be racists around . .

racists always gonna need a party.