We keep hearing how the Republican party needs to redirect itself in order to survive for the good..

[world wide wally]

of the country. Even people like Rachel Maddow (whom I love and admire) talk about it and how we need a Republican party for the good of the country.

I'm not so sure I agree with that. We need an opposition party just for checks and balances, but I can never remember a time when the Republican party did anything that was good for the country. I believe Eisenhower's Interstate highway system was the last decent thing they ever did.

I was having a discussion at a party with a couple Republicans not long ago and I challenged them to name ONE THING Republicans ever did that was good for the average American in the past 50 years. Needless to say, they were completely stumped. I still offer this challenge to anyone who wants to take it.

The point is. I would see it as more of a euthanasia kind of thing and putting them out of OUR misery if the entire Republican party were to die once and for all. So, stop the emergency care already!

[1StrongBlackMan]

1. I agree to some degree ...

but we must make a distinction between the republicans and the "modern gop." In my view, the republican brand died with the election of Reagan. Prior to that, the republican party offered sincere/reality-based alternatives ... even Goldwater.

[Still Sensible]

2. I believe there is a need for a responsible

opposition party. I simply don't know if the republican party, as it exists today, can remake itself to fit that bill. My guess is that after another election or two--if they are unable to fabricate crises or other events--of getting their clock cleaned, they will try awfully hard.

There are certainly folks within the party that believe the mos pressing thing they can do is to embrace immigration reform and try to reverse their dismal showing with hispanics. But that is in direct conflict with the bigoted, fire-breathing southern base. It will be fun to watch these fireworks play out.

There's a place for a fiscally responsible point of view. There's a place for a Libertarian point of view. There's a place for a moral point of view. There's even a place for a pro-business point of view. The problem with all of these is that in the modern republican party, the most extreme elements have been allowed to shape their agenda. They don't allow Eisenhowers, or Dirksens, or Rockefellers, or even Bob Doles in their party any more. While the GOP PTB would not admit it, even Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan would be hard pressed to win a republican primary in this environment. They have purged reasonable people.

I suspect that they are too far down the road with this teabagging, fundamentalist, corporatist alliance. They are now the party of no compromise, all-or-nothing, Rush Limbaughism.

In the next decade or two, they should give way to a responsible opposition political force, one that would almost certainly require a new brand (because I don't believe they can possibly evolve enough). But events--real or manufactured--could prolong their party.