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Farewell, Grand Old Party
By JOEL KOTKIN / Staff columnist at the Orange County Register
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/party-708782-trump-voters.html
"SNIP............
The increased likelihood of Donald Trump as the GOP presidential nominee, as evidenced by his win in Florida and other states last week, spells the end of the Republican Party as we have known it. Successful political parties unite interests under a broadly shared policy agenda. The Clinton Democrats may seem ethically challenged, condescending and bordering on dictatorial, but they share basic positions on many core issues and a unifying belief in federal power as the favored instrument for change.
In contrast, the Republican Party consists of interest groups that so broadly dislike each other that they share little common ground.
GOP libertarians want more social freedoms; social conservatives want less. Neocons hunger for war, while most other Republicans, both libertarian and constitutionalist conservatives, reject Bushian interventionism. The rising populist wave now inundating the party and driving the Trump juggernaut both detests, and is detested by, the partys media, corporate and intellectual establishment.
Some movement conservatives are returning the favor, essentially blaming the white working class for their own failures. Among some on the right, it appears, capitalism and the law of the jungle are always noble, and those who fail to make the grade clearly are not. No surprise, then, that the new generation of voters seems more ready for socialism than for laissez faire.
..............SNIP"
(His part about the GOP is well said, I do not agree with his description of the Democrats)
redstateblues
(10,565 posts)flamingdem
(39,313 posts)I think Ted Cruz is way worse than Trump.
He's got me scared! Never thought I'd feel relieved if Trump gets the nom but I would!
applegrove
(118,600 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,661 posts)flamingdem
(39,313 posts)Albertoo
(2,016 posts)Take the different starnds of the Left and the Right.
Two choices:
- coalesce them in two big parties which sometimes squabble internally, or
- have a myriad of small parties working coalitions (Israel being the extreme example)
Two accounting systems. Probably same result in the end.