I think we’ve reached the end of the line for the GOP. With the exception of Reagan, they’ve done little or nothing to roll back any of the moves toward bigger spending, higher taxes, and moral breakdown.
And even Reagan gave up after a while on trying to cut spending and bureaucracy. He could only do so much, and decided that that aspect was hopeless.
We’ve gone past the point of no return. Romney would be as bad as Obama, if not worse, since he would do much the same, but would step in to take the blame for the economic disaster and prepare the way for the next Obama.
We need a new Second Party. The Republican Establishment not only is hopelessly corrupt in DC, but pretty much everywhere else. Not a new third party, but a new second party. There is a conservative majority out there, longing for change, but they need to get behind some really strong candidate of their own.
Sarah Palin was my earlier hope—she has proved that she can do this sort of thing, and clean out her GOP “allies” as well as the Democrats. But I don’t know if that’s in the cards any longer.
If you look at reform in history, it needs new institutions after things have gotten bad enough. That’s how monastic reform recurrently happened in the middle ages, as the old religious orders sank into irrelevancy and new ones took their places. And that’s how parties have changed—not be reforming them, but by replacing them, after they have sunk too far to be saved.
Some of the best Whig politicians moved over to the new Republican Party, and helped out. But there was no way that the Whigs were ever going to change. That party had to die, and take most of its corrupt leaders with it.
I don’t think the Gipper would ultimately surrender in the fight for smaller government; rather, he had an even greater mission, the defeat of the USSR. He needed the cooperation of the Democrat congress to achieve the higher goal.
Prezactly.
>>...There is a conservative majority out there, longing for change...<<
I would hope so, but I have serious doubts about that. Romney generates *GOBS* of cash, and there are plenty of folks out there voting for him when they have Gingrich, Santorum and Paul to choose from — all arguably to the right of Romney. They can’t all be brain-dead, imbecilic voters. I don’t know what the deal is with all those voters, but the clear bottom line staring us in the face is (my opinion): Like it or not, we need to grow our numbers. We will remain frustrated, angry and disgusted until we do.
Maybe not even the "next" Obama - could very well be Obama himself! Remember, he only served one term, so he could run again in 2016 after Romney has totally demoralized the GOP. His message: "See, I TOLD you what would happen!"