Having used an outrageous title to get your attention, I hope to deliver on the implied promise of a discussion of the current state of the GOP.
As everybody and their brother is dissecting the state of the GOP and their failure to capture the Presidency, I think it's important to think about what sort of opposition we would like to be working against, rather than simply railing against them as unreconstructed bigots, idiots, and ambidextrous gun/bible toting Jerry Springer fans. I'm NOT in favor of the current batch of Republicans making any electoral gains, but think it would be a major help to the country as a whole if they could find some serious candidates for offices all across the political geography.
Further discussion after the nearly-Red Symbol
As much as I'm a lifelong Democrat, I don't want to live in a one-party state, so I don't think the complete elimination of the GOP is a desirable outcome (unless they were going to be replaced by the Greens or some such, which isn't going to happen). I'm old enough to remember when both the Republicans and Democrats were considered to be real parties with intelligent people belonging to both. Republican Presidential offerings have been pretty sad during my life (Eisenhower was slightly before my time, and I'll leave the discussion of his pros and cons to another diary), but they have been well represented in both Congress and various state offices in the past.
So, my thesis is that in those areas that are currently bright red (what many of you refer to dismissively as "Fly-over Country") we should be promoting the selection of good Republicans in primaries where the primary is effectively the real election. Those of us who live in contested states (or the Blue Bookends of the country) will obviously be pushing for good Democrats during our primaries, but there seems to be a good argument for promoting a John Huntsman over a Right-Wing Whack-a-doodle for Governor/Senator from Utah, for example.
I have put on my helmet to soften the blow of the ban-hammer and await your opinions on this idea.