The Republican Party is now the B-Team

[Xipe Totec]

Becalmed, bewildered, benighted, besotted, befuddled, bested.

[merrily]

1. The B team? When did it move up?

If I were ranking political parties, Republicans would be lucky to make the top ten.

But, my opinion and election success are two very different matters. The Republican Party had record-breaking success in 2010, and all over the nation, not only in federal offices. They are still enjoying the fruits of that election, including Republican governors who get to appoint people to fill vacancies in the U.S. Senate.

Of equal or greater importance, they are enjoying gerrymandered districts to help perpetuate the 2010 success in the House. Something they will continue to enjoy until after the next census.

And that was after I had heard a lot in 2008 about how the Republican Party was the D Party--dead and disarrayed. So, despite the unitary Executive, the Oval Office is not everything. Important, but not everything.

I am hearing the same kind of talk now, but more from the Party members themselves than I recall in 2008. Still, I think I will wait a bit before I count them out.

[el_bryanto]

2. US political Parties or all parties?

I would put them above the Know Nothings, the Anti-Masonic Party, the Dixiecrats, and the Communists. Below the Whigs, the Socialists, the Federalists, the Bull Moose Party. I'm probably forgetting a few.

You are right though, that they are in a stronger position than it appears, particularly in the house of representatives.

Bryant

[merrily]

3. U.S. parties.

If it were all the world, they'd probably go no higher than 70th.

In the U.S., I would rank almost any party to the left of Democrats higher than Republians, including Green, Justice, Democratic Socialist (Sen. Sanders' party, before he ran as an indie) and a few others.

I am not so sure I would even rank Dixiecrats (do they still exist formally?) above them.

There is plenty of racism in the Republican Party, among both those who openly self-identify as Teabaggers and those who don't. Indeed, after the Civil Rights Act, the South gradually went from being solidly Democratic to solidly Republican, although we see more purple going on as some of the diehards pass on.l