Could the Republican party fail?

[BirminghamExaminer]

Op-Ed Excerpt:

According to a Washington Post/ABC News poll from April 24, 2009, 35% of Americans identify themselves as Democrats and 38% identify themselves as Independent. Only 21% of Americans identify themselves as Republican.

Today's Republican party isn't your grandfather's Republican party. Hopefully it won't be your grandchildren's Republican party either. As the GOP continues to shrink, is it possible the party could fail?

As recently as a year ago, the idea that auto giant GM could fail was unthinkable. It was just as unthinkable that Lehman Brothers could fail. And just as unfathomable is the idea that the Republican party could fail. Just 101 days ago, many American voters still believed that the GOP was, while weakened by 8 years of misguidance and incompetence, was at least sincere about public service. We believed that those who represent us in our nation's capitol who happened to be Republican would do their utmost to work for us, the American people. No matter how embattled or embittered our elected Republican representatives might be, we believed that they would go on about the business of working for us, the people who hired them, to move our nation out of the depths of a strangled economy.

(snip)

There are those who have expressed the fear that the U.S. is at risk of losing its two party system. The GOP is embarking on what appears to be a quest to isolate themselves, purify their party by punishing any Republican who doesn't follow the rank and file of obstructionism in the nation's capitol. Today's Republican party has shown that it has no tolerance for those who stray from a 100% consensus. Senator Arlen Specter was punished for voting with Democrats on the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Now there are only two remaining moderate Republicans and when one of them, Olympia Snowe, wrote an editorial in the New York Times, she was told 'don't let the door hit you on your way out' by the biggest conglomerate conservative media network, Fox on Fox Nation that linked to the Op-Ed by Snowe.

The Republican party is shrinking. Only 21% of Americans claim to be Republican. Some Republican strategists recognize that the party needs to do something to change or it will continue to shrink. But there are others who are powerful in the GOP who argue that the party doesn't need to change. Karl Rove is attempting to placate the party by saying that Americans who identify themselves as Independent align more often with Republicans than with Democrats. But that is simply untrue. 18% of Independents say they lean Democratic while 16% say they lean Republican. 10% profess not to lean toward either. Add the numbers to the results of the November 4th, 2008 elections and there is very little reason for any one to suppose that Independents align themselves with Republicans more often than not.

(snip)

Go here for the entire op-ed.

[HopeHoops]

1. What do you mean "COULD IT FAIL"???

The GOP has been on the path to failure since Reagan's days and Bush simply drove the bus over the cliff.

It HAS failed - repeatedly!

Can it SURVIVE is a different question, and sadly it will. There are just enough idiots out there to keep it going.

[burning rain]

16. I think they need to lose in 2010 and 2012 -- at least --

before enough of them start to realize that being even more conservative isn't going to save them. That seems to be the dominant current of "thought" in that party these days, that they'll win more elections if they purge the remaining moderates (whom they loathe as "RINOs") and take a purist conservative line.

[Towlie]

2. It wouldn't be the first time. Many parties have come and gone in American history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_political_parties

[HillWilliam]

3. If ever I prayed, I pray most devoutly for their final, public, and

spectacular explosion. And may it take its nastyass crop of minions and followers over the cliff with it, good riddance to all.

[GOPBasher]

4. They might be too big to fail! All those GOP staffers will lose jobs! Need a bailout! n/t

[Alcibiades]

7. Breaking: Geithner Announces Bailout of GOP

(Washington) Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announced today that the government must "move swiftly to restore confidence in the two-party system." Geithner has pledged that the GOP will recieve the full backing of the Treasury Department "until it is able to stand on its own two feet," adding: "We have known for years that the GOP has been intellectually bankrupt. Now is the time to act, with an infusion of new, more moderate ideas and cash." Geithner's critics have attacked the plan, claiming that, with only 21% of Americans identifying themselves as Republican, the move is unnecessary, as the GOP is no longer too big to fail. "I told you so," quipped a duly smug Kevin Phillips.

[Vidar]

9. Too cute.

[GOPBasher]

15. That's priceless! n/t

[FiveGoodMen]

5. The evil (and crazy) that they represent won't go away

Might change its name, but it will always need to be fought.

Eternal vigilance...

[murielm99]

6. I live in a very red area.

The people here are true republican believers. This is not going to change overnight.

The republican party will not die. It may be dormant for a long time, but it's not going away.

[BirminghamExaminer]

8. You live in a red area? I live in Alabama!

Home of Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions and Spencer Bachus.

I never thought GM could fail either.

[Papagoose]

18. I'm in Georgia -

if it weren't for the internet, I might not know that there were other Democrats within 500 miles of my home. The Republican party will not fail in the south, but it certainly will fail as a national party. I'm starting to think we may see the rise of another party who will take the GOP's place, leaving the south behind.

[nolabear]

10. EPICALLY

I know there are a lot of registered Republicans out there but there's no leadership, and without leadership it's a ship that's doomed to sink. People will jump overboard as soon as there's something to jump onto. Ought to be mighty interestin'.

[katty]

11. Could? it HAS failed-they need feng sui, ghostbusters, a

massive cleansing of the nutjobs and a full on reconstitution--into what?! don't know.

[santamargarita]

12. They fail at everything! They can only get in power by stealing elections

:puke:

[benld74]

13. NO BAILOUT!

[bemildred]

14. I hope so. nt

[burning rain]

17. There was a segment on "Hardball" tonight that....

points up a Republican predicament. Tom DeLay and Chris Shays were on and they got to the issue of Republicans in moderate districts having a hard time remaining credible with their constituents given the national party's hard right stance, especially on social issues -- particularly ones connected with religion. Shays referenced the Schiavo affair as one that really hurt Northeastern Republicans. Trouble is, while that kind of theoconservatism kills Republicans who hold federal office but aren't from the Bible Belt, the party pretty much has to take that line to please their mighty Bible Belt constituency. It's a damn hard circle for them to square, but I have no sympathy -- they worked the Biblethumpers into a frenzy and told them theirs were winning politics, so they'll just have to deal with it. State officeholders and parties can dissociate from the national GOP to a great extent, but federal officials will inevitably be tainted by enabling the dominant hard-right faction.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

19. Isn't it an EPIC FAIL already?