Any parent can recall a time when despite irrefutable logic and undeniable facts you couldn't win the argument with your child. At that point we all retreated to the old standby, " because I said so". Children, because they are developing physically and physiologically, can challenge us to our very core. However, despite this, as parents, we understand that children require our guidance and protection because they are our children. We are much less forgiving when we observe an adult behaving as a child. We assume that there is something "wrong" with him and at most feel pity. When groups of adults act inappropriately we fear them and call upon authorities to take control and protect us. However, when an official institution such as a political party acts with total disregard for the facts around them, we must question their relevance, their leadership and most of all their future.
The facts are irrefutable. While for its entire history the US had been a majority white and Protestant nation, in the very foreseeable future that will change. The fastest growing minority voting block is Latino. The fastest shrinking voting block is white and 55 or older, a group the GOP could always count on. The numbers are easily available. Article after article has been written about these changing demographics. Yet the GOP continues to support policies that are repugnant to not only the Latino population, but all minorities and progressives in the country. Their attitudes towards immigration, education, healthcare, gun control, a minimum wage increase, pay equity, taxes and the growing gap between the "haves" and "have-nots" are contrary to the interests of all but the very wealthy, the ideologically right-wing, or the religious right. Combining these groups in a Presidential election does not a victory bring. This is an irrefutable fact proven during the last two elections. Thus, the demographics and the empirical experience of the last two elections prove that GOP behavior is self-defeating. Yet, if we listen to the words of the current presidential candidate crew of GOP misfits, they are like petulant children who simply ignore the facts around them.
While this behavior, if it continues, guarantees that the GOP will likely not see a White House victory for the foreseeable future, another factor has come into play that places their very future in jeopardy. Last Monday, in a little noticed decision handed down by the Supreme Court, the GOP's hold on its majority in Congress was placed in question. In that 5-4 decision, not surprisingly split along ideological lines, the Court ruled that a bipartisan commission established to oversee redistricting in Arizona was, in fact, constitutional. By doing so, they took the politics out of this redistricting process and plunged a fist into the gut of GOP congressional control. As an increasing number of states adopt this process the practice of gerrymandering, which has worked at different times for both Democrats and Republicans, will no longer be possible. Congressional districts will be drawn in a logical and rational way to reflect the real demographics of the state. With the demographics drastically changing in all but a handful of states this must raise a red flag for Republicans. Yet, this childish petulant group of misfits that calls itself the GOP continues to behave as if nothing has changed.
While I abhor what the Republican Party has come to represent, I do feel that we are all well served by the existence of two political parties. Just as our system of government was created with checks and balances, I feel that the parties, in an environment without partisan gerrymandering, serve to check each other and reflect voter preferences. Today's Republican Party is reflective of what is worst in America. If it continues unabated down this route it is writing its own death warrant and I will say good riddance. f that occurs, I hope another party, more reflective of the real hopes and dreams of America comes into existence to compete honestly with the Democrats.
Cross-posted on rationalpolitics.co