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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A lot of these nonsensical and wishful-thinking death predictions for the Republican Party are rooted in a misinterpretation of the fact that the reason the Republican Party is having a tough time managing its various factions is precisely BECAUSE they have been so successful. Look (as Obama likes to say--"LOOK, folks"), the Republicans are the bigger tent party now. Democrats decided several years ago to do away with the white working class. They hate and resent them, actually. They resent their values, their religion, their respect for the individual over the state, and they resent many of their industries. Jim Webb's Democrat Party is long, long gone.

Obama won the 2012 election with 51% of the popular vote. That's no landslide. And the strategy he picked was to double down on progressives and say good riddance to the working class. He also wins on identity politics, which is a major factor for both progressives and, in his case, blacks. It's very difficult to say, though, whether blacks will be as motivated to turn out for a white Democrat. It's doubtful, actually. And what's worse, Hillary or Joe will not have the working class that Obama summarily dismissed.

[/b]Republicans now control the House of Representatives, the Senate, the vast majority of state legislatures, both upper and lower chambers, and the vast majority of governorships. Yes, it's difficult to keep a working coalition together between the big business conservatives, the suburban middle class that doesn't like heavy taxes, the religious right, the libertarians, and so forth. But the important point is they've got them, and that's more than the Democrats can claim.[b] Democrats are just hoping and praying that there are enough Lena Dunham's who spend their lives obsessing over free abortion and microagressions. But as we start to see more and more backlash against the excessive PC movement (check out all the press lambasting the trigger warning culture), that faction is going to weaken as some of them come to their senses. Then what will the Democrats have, other than a few angry college professors who want Bernie Sanders' Denmark?

[/quote]

The important part isn't that they've "got them," but what are they going to do with that power? How will they legislate? With the exception of the state legislatures (which have done all the heavy lifting of late), Republicans have done NOTHING with their power but stomp their feet. This is because the party has different factions and they've lost a consensus. They won't keep their power if they cannot legislate. [/quote]

I don't know. They kept Obama's signature achievement, ACA, limited to a weakened version of Romneycare. The single payer option was "off the table" immediately, remember? They prevented Cap and Trade, they successfully outmaneuvered Obama to cut the growth rate of runaway spending with the whole Sequestration plan (and brilliantly called his bluff). They kept the Bush tax cuts in place for the vast, vast majority of the population and severely limited the amount they would rise on the highest-income taxpayers (and they've done this so successfully that these are no longer even referred to as the Bush tax cuts, they're just cemented as the "tax rates.) They prevented Obama from passing a huge tax increase on the middle class by eliminating the benefits of 529 college savings plans.

All in all, I'm happy.[/quote]

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