The Death of a Political Party

I've been alive for almost twenty seven years, politically aware for nearly seventeen of them. In those there have been many peaks and valleys for each party. I've seen a President go from 82% popularity to 28%, and his predecessor's popularity rises even until this day. I've seen do-nothing Congresses, Congresses filled with animosity, soft Congresses who wilt under executive pressure, and Congresses who do everything in their power to lose their next election. Yet in all of this time, it has been individuals who paid the price, some men and women would lose elections due to their incompetence or something they were thought party to. This time around it is not going to be that clean.

I was a liberal by birth; now, I am a liberal by choice. However, since I've been young, I've been utterly fascinated by the Republican party. It is the party of Lincoln, and a party which after the 1960's somehow absorbed the Dixiecrats and no longer was a party of equality or civil rights. The party that is every year anointed by poor, mostly rural white, people, yet is dominated by the wishes of the rich. It is a party of correct economic and political ideals, and poor implementation. A party who fights too often on moral and religious grounds, sometimes hypocritically and always to the detriment of the American government. In a two-party system, I wish for the battles to be even, to be made on grounds of our ideas and our dreams, not upon our money or as it seems now ineptitude. The Republican party is dying before our eyes, and no one seems to notice.

People have been harping on Obama's poll numbers, without acknowledging they are exactly where they should be. He has done a bad job, even with no help from Congress and the worst economy in twenty years or if you wish to be dramatic since the depression. Even more importantly, the Republicans popularity has been dropping at a faster rate since this summer. Do polls really tell us everything? No, but national elections do. Currently, the Republicans are fighting a war of attrition where all of their flaws are laid bare. The only viable candidate Mitt Romney just was revealed to have spent money to destroy documents upon leaving as Governor of Massachusetts. Herman Cain, who I will say should have never been a leading candidate, went all Bill Clinton without any support or charm. Rick Perry might actually have a learning disability, and I'm saying that out of kindness to his family so they get him checked out. Michelle Bachmann is losing ground with the Tea Party supporters to..Newt Gingrich, that guy who was politically dead six months ago.

If Gingrich continues his improbable surge, and ends up the nominee, this will be the second election where the Republican party went with old blood, and found themselves outmatched. I wrote last election about the Republicans losing the Hispanic and African-American vote for good, what happens if they lose young voters? Is there a young Republican that can reverse either of those trends? Is there a demographic shift in which the Republican party can regain the losses they are sustaining in urban centers? I don't see it, as of this moment. The Republican party's most evident surges of the past three years came from libertarians and the party will never be a party of libertarians. Are we looking at a party that has to start over from scratch?

I wish that were so, but political parties are not the phoenix. They die slowly and take longer to revitalize their ideas. The Republicans died after Nixon and found themselves only mid-way through Reagan's administration. They have yet to change their theories since despite the rapid changes that occur in our technological society. The Democrats died after Carter and found another Southerner to rebuild the party, yet will never find its roots in the South again. The slow-death will not be apparent, except they will not win major elections. There will be no upsets and fresh blood will not come into either party and the government will continue to stagnate into irrelevance. Sans tragedy or collapses unknown, there will no longer be any action and the Eastern world will pass us by or laugh softly as their own problems destroy them as well.

The Republicans had an opportunity to regain the Presidency, and to change the fortunes of their political party. They have already failed, and the Democrats are better for it. Yet, I've never seen a Democratic Party that knew how to use power so I will just say that no one is better for it. The United States is mired in stagnancy and will be until either Obama finds courage post-election to fight for what he believes in or the two parties actually begin to care about America and work together. The former is certainly possible, the latter is unlikely. Five years from now, I hope this short rant is irrelevant, but nothing I wrote three years ago is yet. This is our democracy.