Metaphorically speaking, I'm all for kicking the Republicans when they're down. I'm for jumping up and down on their throats. I'm not a moderate. I'm not purple. I'm a hardcore, blue-to-the-marrow, liberal Democrat. I won't be happy until today's moderates are considered right wingers. I won't be happy until I'm considered a centrist.
That the Republicans are imploding is truly fun to watch. They seem to be split between a faction that wants to return us to a deeply unpopular 13th Century "moral values" government and a faction that wants to return us to a deeply unpopular Chicago School class warfare disaster capitalism "government." Whichever side wins control of the void where a soul of the Republican Party would have been does not matter. Let them fight to the death. Let them split into two deeply unpopular rump parties. Good riddance. Very tiny people caterwauling in very tiny voices as fewer and fewer human beings pay attention. Great fun.
But once again speaking in metaphors, let's not dance on their graves. Let's never assume that they are in their graves. We have seen this before. Politics has a strange way of whiplashing. That their lack of real values has now become patently obvious doesn't mean that they won't find a way to claw back to political relevance. It seems a stretch, but it's possible. And anyone with any knowledge of history knows that the seemingly impossible surprisingly often comes to pass. The Republicans and their allies still control much of the corporate media. The Reagan-Bush economy is still in shambles. We are still mired in two losing Bush wars. If these disasters aren't repaired soon enough, that propaganda advantage will come into play, and the collective national short-term memory could kick in. As the poet Charles Olson put it:
What does not change is the will to change.
The country already was dramatically turning against the Republicans by 1992. Despite that corporate media advantage, they had to steal the 2000 election. And only the vicious exploitation of an unforeseen historical disaster enabled them to retain power in 2002 and 2004. By 2006, it no longer worked. By 2008, the nation had come to its senses, and again was looking forward. But we cannot know what will happen next. We do know that such a sick viciousness has a bottomless depth of depravity. There is literally nothing they won't try, to regain power. That they are now so hilariously floundering and foundering is partially due to a complete lack of historical opportunities. But history has a strange way of whiplashing.
We can enjoy this moment but we cannot celebrate until the Republicans truly have gone the Way of the Whigs. They haven't. Yet. And we shouldn't act like they have. Theocrats never give up. They believe they are divinely guided. That doesn't end. Ever. Kleptocrats also never give up. It's about trillions of dollars. It's about pure power. In its own way, it's also about a sense of divine right. Neither main faction of the Republican Party ever will stop trying. Neither faction ever will stop exploiting literally any possible opportunity, no matter how dishonest and cynical and cruel. We must never for a moment forget that.
Keep working. Keep fighting. Dance all you want, but always be aware that you are not dancing on their graves. Yet.