The opposite of concern trolling
Republican coalition: 1968-2008
It seems to really be happening. The GOP is losing moderates hand over fist. This year it will just be the conservaChristians, racists, rural voters and neocon and supply-side ideologues. Pretty much just what Lee Atwater called the extra-chromosome set. I know that there will still be some intelligent peeps who will still vote Republican but that will not be the base by an means. The GOP has become the party of the Deep South, the rural West and the Great Plains. Hard to win many elections that way.
I think this will ultimately be good for the Grand Old Party, but in the interim it is going to be a very painful process. What will have to happen is that the Nixon and Rockefeller Republicans have to wrestle control back from the hard right. In 1988 the lunatics started to take control of the asylum and after the last eight years they will now deliver a Democratic president, a huge deficit in the House and perhaps even a filibuster proof minority in the Senate.
This is a party that simply MUST change. Their ideology is now officially failed. The economic disaster we are currently experiencing is the last straw. The starve the government and deregulate everything ideology is what caused it and I think that on some level most Americans know this even if they don't know a damned thing about economics. Given that, the Republicans have no message on the economy. It's hard to win elections that way too.
It also doesn't help them anymore that they are still fighting the 60's culture wars over and over again. That is small ball type stuff that is important to voters only when things are going relatively well. Bush and the Republicans have fucked up all of the BIG stuff. When people think that you can't handle the big shit and you are still trying to woo them by saying demcrat taek gun away you have a major problem.
Again, the GOP needs to kick the Hannity/Limbaugh ideology that has controlled the party for the past twenty years and let the adults take over again. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a bit of elitism when it comes to politics regardless of whether that is a popular idea or not (I think it is making a huge comeback, personally). The Joe Sixpack crap plays well with rural voters and dumb people to be brutally honest. The rest of the time people judge you on results. The GOP has to start showing some positive results before the country is going to hand them the keys again. They can't do this when the Rove acolytes are still in charge of the party.
This election should serve as a major wake up call to Republicans. It's a very good thing that McCain is the candidate who is going to lose since he is 72 and never had much influence over the party anyway. I also assume that even if McConnell wins his re-election bid he is going to be fired as Minority Leader. Boehner is probably toast as well. That gives them an excellent opportunity to re-invent themselves. If the party continues to try the same old shit, different names, they will keep losing. If they instead decide that they maybe need to find a completely different message I think that they can come back relatively quickly even though the coalition would be different.
We have a chance to not just win across the board, we have a chance to destroy the GOP as we all know it. Throw them the anvil. Obliterate them. It's time to for the idiots to clear the floor.