Robert Reich: The GOP died in 2016.

[forest444]

I’m writing to you today to announce the death of the Republican Party. It is no longer a living, vital, animate organization.

It died in 2016, and has been replaced by warring tribes:

Evangelicals opposed to abortion, gay marriage, and science.

Libertarians opposed to any government constraint on private behavior.

Market fundamentalists convinced the “free market” can do no wrong.

Corporate and Wall Street titans seeking bailouts, subsidies, special tax loopholes, and other forms of crony capitalism.

Billionaires craving even more of the nation’s wealth than they already own.

And white working-class Trumpoids who love Donald. and are becoming convinced the greatest threats to their wellbeing are Muslims, blacks, and Mexicans.

Each of these tribes has its own separate political organization, its own distinct sources of campaign funding, its own unique ideology – and its own candidate. What’s left is a lifeless shell called the Republican Party. But the Grand Old Party inside the shell is no more.

I, for one, regret its passing. Our nation needs political parties to connect up different groups of Americans, sift through prospective candidates, deliberate over priorities, identify common principles, and forge a platform.

The Republican Party used to do these things. Sometimes it did them easily, as when it came together behind William McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt in 1900, Calvin Coolidge in 1924, and Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Sometimes it did them with difficulty, as when it strained to choose Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Barry Goldwater in 1964, and Mitt Romney in 2012. But there was always enough of a Republican Party to do these important tasks – to span the divides, give force and expression to a set of core beliefs, and come up with a candidate around whom Party regulars could enthusiastically rally.

No longer. And that’s a huge problem for the rest of us. Without a Republican Party, nothing stands between us and a veritable Star Wars barroom of self-proclaimed wanna-be’s.

Without a Party, anyone runs who’s able to raise (or already possesses) the requisite money – even if he happens to be a pathological narcissist who has never before held public office, even if he’s a knave detested by all his Republican colleagues.

Without a Republican Party, it’s just us and them. And one of them could even become the next President of the United States.

At: http://www.salon.com/2016/02/17/robert_reich_the_gop_died_in_2016_partner/

[randys1]

1. Way too many cons refuse to admit being GOP because they disowned W and

now have nowhere to go.

If only they would stop being brainwashed and stop voting against their own survival

[forest444]

3. There's the rub: their ethnic hatred won't let them.

While there are many exceptions, the sad fact is that most of today's Republicans are incorrigible racists. When they think no one's looking, the trend that bothers them most isn't women's lib, gay rights, or any socioeconomic issue like business regulations or the welfare state (although they certainly detest each of those), it's the "browning" of America.

That's where today's GOP comes in: years of posturing have convinced all these bigots that they, the Republican Party, share their voters' hatred of minorities - especially tawny and dark-skinned people. The implicit promise these voters see in the GOP is that someday, somehow, they'll rid the country of "undesirables" - basically, ethnic cleansing.

It's a yearning common to many countries int he world, as you know. And the more desperate they become economically, the worse it tends to get. That's why GOP candidates can adopt openly fascist rhetoric this year, and do so with no consequences (on the contrary!).

Qué será.

[randys1]

4. Exactly and why I say ALL opposition to Obama from the right, FROM THE RIGHT

is based first and foremost in racism

ALL

[forest444]

7. If they'd only see that the billionaire class couldn't care less about what our race is or isn't.

The elite, as George Carlin pointed out, is a big club - and we ain't in it.

[merrily]

2. I must be misunderstanding. Nominating Barry Goldwater was an important task?

Goldwater resuscitated the conservative moment, which gave us both Reagan and a vitalized Libertarian Party.

Please tell me I'm misunderstanding.

[forest444]

5. The important task of choosing a candidate - which, as you know, they've often struggled to.

I hear you though: it would have been better if they had succumbed to an irreconciliable schism. Having the right divided into a Republican Party and some neo-fascist splinter like a Conservative or Freedom Party would have been a Godsend.

Such is life.

[merrily]

6. Have they ever NOT had a nominee since Lincoln was the first Republican President?

Sure, they've had large fields--which, btw, I do not see a bad thing. Choices are good for voters and far more small d democratic. But, they've always come up with a nominee.

[mgmaggiemg]

8. GOP did it to themselves

the quote unquote "establishment" invited it. it's their own fault.

[forest444]

9. They certainly did, from the Southern Strategy to Lee Atwater and beyond.

They just never expected the power of the coalition that minorities and moderate white folks created to counter them.