If the Republican Party implodes, will America fail?

[Billy Burnett]

Poll question: If the Republican Party implodes, will America fail?

Our media seems to think so.

[onehandle]

1. If the Republican Party doesn't implode (and takes the House), America will fail. nt

[Hansel]

3. And in a big, awful way. nt

[Zoeisright]

7. +1000000000000000

Exactly so.

[theothersnippywshrub]

2. The party of Lincoln is now the party of John Wilkes Booth. Republicans need to change that. n/t

[tledford]

4. Other.

As in, "Huh?"

[BlueIdaho]

5. You mean the John Birch Society?

They will not be missed.

[ShadowLiberal]

6. Historically large parties that 'fall' often win in the end, so I say lets hope not

I'd rather the GOP get reduced to what democrats were for a century after the Civil War, the permanent minority party basically. Until the great depression changed things the democrats only won four presidential elections during that century. Those elections were two wins for Cleveland (and that was with losing the white house in the middle), and Woodrow Wilson (and Wilson only won both times because Theodore Roosevelt was so sick of Taft's ultra pro-business policies that he ran under a third party and split the GOP vote in half. For Wilson's second term even though the GOP only had 1 nominee enough discontent remained from the last presidential election, causing enough people to vote to narrowly reelect Wilson.)

And hey the GOP is already on a course to get reduced to that kind of powerlessness with demographic changes.

Plus the Federalists and Whigs are the only two major parties to fall apart in US history. For the Federalists, it was their vision of America that came true, not the Democratic-Republican's vision of a 90%+ society of farmers with a weak federal government that didn't get involved in much. For the Whigs, the Whigs were the more pro-North party in the slavery fight, but slavery drove them apart and killed them when they couldn't satisfy either side. But in their ashes emerged a much more radical pro-north party, the Republicans, who basically ran a 'Win all the Free States' campaign for president. Their strategy worked, Lincoln won without even appearing on the ballot in the southern states. Until the great depression the Republicans enjoyed a century of domination nationally.

It's really sad that today's Republican party is everything that Republicans were against when they were first formed. Republicans have become everything they weren't at the beginning. Most of the GOP don't even seem to know about their past with how they frequently say they have to 'return to their roots', returning to their roots is becoming democrats on everything except taxes and regulation of businesses.

[Hekate]

8. The media treat the Repub Party as the default party (ie the "real" one, the "legitimate" one) ...

... whether they are in or out of power. Every story references how it affects the Repubs, what the Repubs think of said story, and how it increases the chances of the Repubs to retain or regain power.

It was inescapable during the Bush Admin, but is even more noticeable now that the Dems actually hold the reins of government. Every story.

Journalistic ethics? Objectivity? Pfft. Why worry about those when you can narrate a conflict or even create one?

Hekate