Whigs... for a couple years I have written here

[zipplewrath]

74. Too much structure

The GOP won't "go away", it will just restructure/align. There is too much infrastructure in each party for them ever to go away. They just get co-opted into something new. FDR turned the democrats into the liberal party of labor, and ultimately led them to be the civil rights party. The GOP in the '50s was the "bankers party", mostly north eastern industry and banking leaders. In the '60s the liberals and civil rights party was the democrats, and they turned into the anti-war party. The GOP became the "all white male" party. They morphed into the conservative white party in the '80s and they've been stuck there since, becoming more and more a minority. The GOP right now is a very small party. People are leaving the party in droves, mostly to become "independents". In the '90s, Clinton morphed the democrats into the DLC party, inviting in the former bankers from the '50s GOP, and driving out the pacifists and to some extent ignoring labor.

I suspect another shift is coming. If the GOP loses big this time around, or even more so in 4 more years, one can expect to see someone co-opt the GOP into a major shift left, potentially picking up some labor vote, as well as latino vote. All it will take is a charismatic leader to collect the ashes of the party and refocus it in a new direction. That will give them control of the infrastructure and off they'll go, leaving Reagan in the dust, much as we tend to ignore FDR these days.