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If you're asking about when the whole party in general was a positive force for good in our country then, aside from a few notable leaders (i.e. Lincoln, T. Roosevelt, Eisenhower?), then, really, the whole foundation of the GOP, at least the modern incarnation of it anyway, never had a "shark to jump" in the first place. The GOP's only major function in our country to date seems to be obsessively representing the interests of the uber-wealthy, the elite, and corporations against the interests of middle- and working-class and, more importantly, blocking any kind of significant reforms that enhance the health, safety, and overall well-being of everybody but themselves and their constituencies. They have been- until lately- frighteningly successful in getting a majority of people divided (i.e. through the exploitation of social, religious, and/or cultural issues) and/or distracted enough to obtain and maintain significant governmental and social power to advance their agenda.
If you're asking about when, in recent history, they began to lose their political viability (at least for now), I'd say that it was Bush's invasion/occupation of Iraq in 2003 or, more specifically, Bush's failure to find any WMD in Iraq despite him and his (mis-)administration's efforts to scare us into launching a "war of choice", not to mention his and Cheney's constantly blustering about the UN's incompetence and "failure" to locate any WMD themselves during their internationally sanctioned inspection tours, that started the avalanche that practically buried them last year. Up until that point- following 9/11- Bush had been seemingly invincible and commanded high approval ratings but he only barely managed to win re-(s)election in 2004. I believe that it was definitely his debacle in Iraq that produced the first major "chink" in the GOP majority's political "armor" and had the Democrats worked a little harder in 2004, Bush may actually not have won a second term. But, of course, he did. However, between the failure to locate any WMD and the slow but steady drip of information suggesting that Bush et. al had been trying to "fix" the facts around the policy of invading/occupying Iraq and ignoring the more nuanced reports the CIA was REALLY providing to him about Iraq's actual ability to threaten us, more and more people finally began to realize that the GOP may not quite be the honest and capable party they (still) portray themselves to be, a suspicion that continued to be reaffirmed time and time again during Bush's second term when Bush/GOP tried to scare us into privatizing Social Security, tried to use federal and judicial power to prevent a private citizen from making personal medical decisions about a family member's medical condition, and failed miserably to help provide emergency assistance to an entire city faced with an environmental catastrophe. The wave of disgraced officials and party members didn't help things for them either during the run up to the 2006 elections.
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