AUTOPSY FOR THE UNDEAD
I had a hard time coming up with anything to say about this GOP "autopsy." I can see that the Republican Party is struggling to connect with voters who aren't old, white, and cranky. I know that parts of the GOP coalition really hate the Reince Priebus recommendations. I ought to heat up a big batch o' popcorn and sit back to watch Republicans tear apart what's left of their party. Right?
Except that's not how it works. Republicans may change or may not (my guess is they won't); they may learn to live with one another or may keep fighting (my guess is arrested-development cases like Sarah Palin will still want to fight with other Republicans, but most of these squabbles won't amount to much).
But it doesn't matter: the GOP can screw up forever and the press will still treat the party as a respectable organization that's serious about governing. Voters may recoil in horror at certain Republicans, but the GOP will still dominate in heartland America -- non-coastal whites will still overwhelmingly vote for Republican governors and state legislators and members of Congress, because the party label still doesn't inspire revulsion.
Oh, and the 2016 presidential election? The country is hardly averse to voting Republican again. (In a recent Quinnipiac poll of the blue-but-swingy state of Pennsylvania, Chris Christie crushed Joe Biden and Andrew Cuomo, and Paul Ryan beats Biden, while Marco Rubio is competitive with Biden and Cuomo, and only Hillary Clinton beats Rubio, Ryan, and Christie.) And the press is just itching to write the GOP comeback story. (The press has never like the Democratic Party very much and is so over Obama.) And while I expect self-sabotage on the party's part -- once again, crazy fellow candidates will probably drive the semi-sane, electable winner too far to the right -- it's not guaranteed to happen.
Republicans control the majority of our states, one House of Congress overtly and one through the filibuster, and our Supreme Court. I'll say what I said over the weekend: why so glum?
