Is the republican party an endangered species?

Quote :

These days, Republicans have the desperate aura of an endangered species. They lost Congress, then the White House; more recently, they lost a slam-dunk House election in a conservative New York district, then Senator Arlen Specter. Polls suggest that only one-fourth of the electorate considers itself Republican, that independents are trending Democratic and that as few as five states have solid Republican pluralities. And the electorate is getting less white, less rural, less Christian — in short, less demographically Republican. GOP officials who completely controlled Washington three years ago are vowing to "regain our status as a national party" and creating woe-is-us groups to resuscitate their brand, while Democrats are publishing books like The Strange Death of Republican America and 40 More Years: How the Democrats Will Rule the Next Generation. John McCain's campaign manager recently described his party as basically extinct on the West Coast, nearly extinct in the Northeast and endangered in the Mountain West and Southwest.

Some very interesting observations made in this article.

Time Magazine-Is the Party Over link

gringaloca wrote:

Quote :

These days, Republicans have the desperate aura of an endangered species. They lost Congress, then the White House; more recently, they lost a slam-dunk House election in a conservative New York district, then Senator Arlen Specter. Polls suggest that only one-fourth of the electorate considers itself Republican, that independents are trending Democratic and that as few as five states have solid Republican pluralities. And the electorate is getting less white, less rural, less Christian — in short, less demographically Republican. GOP officials who completely controlled Washington three years ago are vowing to "regain our status as a national party" and creating woe-is-us groups to resuscitate their brand, while Democrats are publishing books like The Strange Death of Republican America and 40 More Years: How the Democrats Will Rule the Next Generation. John McCain's campaign manager recently described his party as basically extinct on the West Coast, nearly extinct in the Northeast and endangered in the Mountain West and Southwest.

Some very interesting observations made in this article.

Time Magazine-Is the Party Over link

I was just getting ready to post this as a separate link.

I've been talking with people about this for several weeks now. Unfortunately, the die hard conservatives won't hear of or discuss it. They are not concerned with running off large numbers of more socially liberal republicans or moderates. It reminds me of riding in a car with someone when you tell them that they are going the wrong way and they just keep driving.

Annie Oakley wrote:

gringaloca wrote:

Quote :

These days, Republicans have the desperate aura of an endangered species. They lost Congress, then the White House; more recently, they lost a slam-dunk House election in a conservative New York district, then Senator Arlen Specter. Polls suggest that only one-fourth of the electorate considers itself Republican, that independents are trending Democratic and that as few as five states have solid Republican pluralities. And the electorate is getting less white, less rural, less Christian — in short, less demographically Republican. GOP officials who completely controlled Washington three years ago are vowing to "regain our status as a national party" and creating woe-is-us groups to resuscitate their brand, while Democrats are publishing books like The Strange Death of Republican America and 40 More Years: How the Democrats Will Rule the Next Generation. John McCain's campaign manager recently described his party as basically extinct on the West Coast, nearly extinct in the Northeast and endangered in the Mountain West and Southwest.

Some very interesting observations made in this article.

Time Magazine-Is the Party Over link

I was just getting ready to post this as a separate link.

I've been talking with people about this for several weeks now. Unfortunately, the die hard conservatives won't hear of or discuss it. They are not concerned with running off large numbers of more socially liberal republicans or moderates. It reminds me of riding in a car with someone when you tell them that they are going the wrong way and they just keep driving.

Exactly. And the party will continue to shrink and so will their ideas until it's a very exclusive club. Those are the groups that become scary and dangerous. The hardest of the hardcore. They won't admit fault no matter what happens.

And mark my words on this one. The republicans will turn on Joe the non-plumber so quickly it will make your head spin. They would have defended him until the end last week. This week he will be crucified especially if he doesn't keep his mouth shut. I wonder what Rush will have to say? lol

I recall the same being said about the Democrats not long ago, in fact, if it wasn't for Obama the talk would be continued. Like Mongo said in another thread, it will go back and forth as it always has. The Republican Party isn't going anywhere. I'd venture to say they will soon have a very "Reaganesque" candidate. Really all just wishful thinking from the left.

Judge Roy Bean wrote:

I recall the same being said about the Democrats not long ago, in fact, if it wasn't for Obama the talk would be continued. Like Mongo said in another thread, it will go back and forth as it always has. The Republican Party isn't going anywhere. I'd venture to say they will soon have a very "Reaganesque" candidate. Really all just wishful thinking from the left.

I don't think it is. I'm a registered democrat but do find myself agreeing more with the republican ideas.

Judge Roy Bean wrote:

I recall the same being said about the Democrats not long ago, in fact, if it wasn't for Obama the talk would be continued. Like Mongo said in another thread, it will go back and forth as it always has. The Republican Party isn't going anywhere. I'd venture to say they will soon have a very "Reaganesque" candidate. Really all just wishful thinking from the left.

I agree but I do believe that the republican party has taken on a real transformation over the past eight years. They may come back into it in a year or two but I wonder in what form. The Reaganesque version or a new more ultra-conservative form. I've always wondered if the republican party would eventually split. It seems there are three different groups within the party right now. The super conservative Christian version, the Ron Paul doomsday version and the old school version. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few years.

And the only think I disagree with is your last sentence. It seems that whenever someone writes something somewhat negative (even if it's totally true) about the republican party, that somehow makes them left leaning. Some top republicans even agree with the assessment from that article. I think that the republican party should really take a hard, long look at where they are going instead of sticking their fingers in their ears and yelling la la la la la. What they have been doing for the past few years hasn't been working. Pushing on in the same direction doesn't seem to be achieving anything except alienating more people.

gringaloca wrote:

I agree but I do believe that the republican party has taken on a real transformation over the past eight years. They may come back into it in a year or two but I wonder in what form. The Reaganesque version or a new more ultra-conservative form. I've always wondered if the republican party would eventually split. It seems there are three different groups within the party right now. The super conservative Christian version, the Ron Paul doomsday version and the old school version. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few years.

I think both parties have their "splits". The splits in both parties tend to be split on whether they focus on social issues or fiscal issues.

In the democratic party you have fiscal focused dem's who focus on issues dealing with steep progressive tax structure, numerous government programs, high government regulation of business, and other fiscal issues.

Then you have those social focused dems who focus more on issues such as abortion rights, gay marriage, seperation of church and state, envirnonmental regulation, gun control, etc..

By no means do the fiscal focused dems no agree with the social focused dems views, it is just the fiscal views have more priority and vice versa.

For the republicans it is the same way, fiscally focused or socially focused.

The fiscally focused want flat taxes, smaller government and less government regulation of business.

The socially focused are Pro Life, against Gay Marriage, believe that seperation of church and state means only that the goverment does not endorse a specific religion but religion can have an influence on government, milder environmental regulation and milder gun control.

In both of these republican groups you will see somewhat of a "everyman for himself/government stay out of my life" view also. Similar to the dem's these two republican groups will agree with the other groups view, just won't hold them to the same priority as the other.

The party that can align their different "splits" the best generally will control government the most effective. Now the dems are doing that. In five years the pendulum may swing the other direction.

I am pretty sure that the Republican party is not "endangered" and they are not going anywhere. What happened? ..........the Republicans lost the election, that's all. This same thing was being said after the Dems lost 8 years ago and again 4 years ago. I believe the whole idea of suggesting either one is falling apart is really kind of crazy , the Dems and GOP will both be around and administrations will change back and forth like they always have.

One party I truly wish would go away are the Liberals. That's right, the liberals have taken over the Democratic party more and more untill there the "true" Democratic party imo has been lost. I believe that a separate "Liberal" party should be formed. Democrats used to be the party of the "working man/real people"............no more is that the case, rather it has turned into the ACLU, Hollywood pompass jerk, bleeding heart liberal, "political correct", let's for God's sake not offend anyone and last but not least as of this administration the American "socialist wanna be" party.

I was a proud "democrat" at one time, certainly no more and I am not or don't want to associated with the Dems. I cannot even recognize the true democratic "for the common man/real America" party and haven't been able to in years, it has only imo gotten worse.
I do not mean my statements to offend anyone on here and I repsect others right to post their opinion. I am talking about the Dems that are in office (house and senate along with the white house) today and have been in those positions over the last dozen years or so.

Judge Roy Bean wrote:

I recall the same being said about the Democrats not long ago, in fact, if it wasn't for Obama the talk would be continued. Like Mongo said in another thread, it will go back and forth as it always has. The Republican Party isn't going anywhere. I'd venture to say they will soon have a very "Reaganesque" candidate. Really all just wishful thinking from the left.