The Imminent Death of the GOP - Article circa 1971 I don't have access to

Article in PolySci mag, circa 1971 ^ | 2/6/2025 | self

[CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC]

In the Fall of 1971, I took a newly-offered Poly Sci course in HS in Boulder CO, taught by the US History teacher.

She was one of a now-extinct race I term Honorable Democrats, who was politically active but didn't press an agenda on her students.

One day she read us an article from a journal of PolySci to which she subscribed.

It was a long-term prediction of how Politics in the USA would unfold, written by Political Scentists.
You must understand that since it's their job to study this stuff, these highly skilled Professionals are naturally the most reliable predictors of the political future. Yes indeed.

And they said the GOP was on the way out, soon to be something you saw stuffed by taxidermists on display in museums, between Dodo Bird & Passenger Pigeon.

The GOP had actually died decades before (but didn't know it yet) in Jan 1933 when FDR ushered in Permanent Democratic Control of US Politics.

Since then, we'd seen permanent Dem control of the White House, with just a couple of "hiccups" that could be explained away as anomalies.

The first of those was Eisenhower, who all sides admitted would have been elected regardless of which party's label he ran on, due to his extreme popularity as Supreme Commander of Allied forces in Europe. And in fact BOTH parties tried to recruit him as their candidate.

So Ike could be easily explained away as an anomaly.

The 2nd and final anomaly was Nixon's 1968 election. Again, that was an aberration. His eking out a victory with just 43% of the popular vote was allegedly only due to George Wallace splitting the Dem voting base.

So if Wallace didn't do a repeat in the next election, Dems were sure to recapture the White House in '72.

After that, the GOP would continue dying out. Demographics proved this assertion. The Dem's base contained almost everyone:

• Virtually all Blue Collar workers. "Union households," etc.
• Virtually ALL racial minorities such as Blacks & Latinos, who were growing in number.
• All the Catholic "ethnics" such as Italian, Irish, Polish, etc.
• "The Solid South" (remember that phrase?) - which would never, never, NEVER vote for the detested "Party of Lincoln," causing their Confederate grandpappies to roll over in their graves. (Sure, a few states had strayed to vote for Barry G in '64 - another one-time anomaly, but so what?)
• The educated elites.
• And much more....

OTOH, the only groups that still stubbornly voted GOP were:

• Farmers - the traditional GOP base, who had once comprised a vast majority of the population, but had now shrunk down to a pittance.
• "Country Club Republicans" - ie Wall Street types. Sure, they had a ton of $$, but longterm that couldn't make up for their tiny numbers.

So what was certain to happen next, is the GOP would shrivel and die, just like the Federalist Party of Adams & Hamilton had done 150 years before, and history would repeat itself.

Only one single viable party remained in the early 1800's - Jefferson's "Democratic-Republicans". And since one party alone is insufficient to forever contain all the various political viewpoints of the entire population, they eventually split 3 ways, in the 1824 election.

Likewise, this was bound to happen again by the early 21st Century, as the sole governing party - the Democrats - could no longer keep all its factions unified forever, and would eventully split into 2 or more parties.

In conclusion, the Republican Party in 1971 was on life support, and would soon enter a death spiral after Tricky Dicky's crushing defeat in 1972. (You remember that one, don't you?)

[CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC]

After the Nov '72 blowout, I hoped I'd meet dear Mrs. Hughes again someday, and remind her of that prediction. Eventually, I did run across her once in the Reagan years, but didn't have the heart to go Hawhaw! in her face.

[KnutKase]

That’s a good one... btw, I like your tagline.

[uranium penguin]

In a LOT of ways.. it is correct.
And until very recently still is.

There may be some fring elements on both sides.

but we have essentially had a “uniparty” for my lifetime.

They can call themselves Dem or Rep. But their purpose and goals are the same once in Gov, to create More Gov and get rich.

Just a bit of theatre here and there for the unwashed masses to watch.

[DannyTN]

[Verginius Rufus]

Anyone old enough to have voted for FDR in 1932 would have had to be born no later than Nov. 8, 1911. According to Wikipedia's list of the oldest living persons, there are only 4 Americans alive who were old enough to vote in 1932 (all of them women).

The passage of time destroyed FDR's coalition. For the significance of the passage of time, consult the expert, Kamala Harris.

[ifinnegan]

I remember a Time magazine article saying this. After Watergate. I think after Carter got elected.

[ModelBreaker]

“And they said the GOP was on the way out, soon to be something you saw stuffed by taxidermists on display in museums, between Dodo Bird & Passenger Pigeon.”

The GOP of 1971 is dead and stuffed by taxidermists. She was right.

But Trump and the Republican base have created a new party that uses the same name as the old, dead, party.

The Romneys and Bushes want their old “Monopoly guy with a tophat and cigar” party back. They liked being “friends with benefits” with the left.

[CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC]

Oh yeah, I've seen the prediction of the GOP's imminent death multiple times since then. Clinton and Obama were both supposed to usher in Permanent Democrat Rule.

I saved away the TIME issue published a few days after the '72 blowout. Over 10 years later I ran across it & skimmed the articles.

One article that predicted the nearterm future gave me a huge chuckle. The gist was: now that Nixon is a lame duck, which Republican is likely to run to replace him in '76?

Agnew was naturally acknowledged to have the inside track, being the current Veep. And then they went thru the roster of other prominent names and weighed the Pros & Cons of each.

The part I really enjoyed was when they got to Reagan's name. They immediately dismissed him out of hand as being far too old. Hey! In 1976, he'll be 65, for pity's sake! Who on earth would vote for a 65 year old man?!?

Heh heh! I just *LOVE* how the MSM and other In-The-Know Dems predict the future.

Entire audience plus panel explodes in laughter when Coulter predicts Trump in 2016

[CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC]

Thank you! But I need to change my out-of-date tagline, as soon as I think of something better. I last changed it Jan 2021 when Biden was sworn in, and all of a sudden those who had spent 4 years on “Fight in the streets! Resist Trump! Not my president! Let’s split this country apart!” changed their tune to: “Unity! At last, peace & quiet and a unified nation.”