Radical Republicans

Everyone is saying Obama's going to win.  It also seems that the Democrats are going to win a majority in the Senate and the House.  That's all great news (and I hope and pray and cross my fingers that it comes off), but what's going to happen to the Republicans?

Some might think that they will look at their policies and ideologies, and realize, this might not be working so well - time to revamp and get back in line with the mainstream U.S.A.  However, Paul Krugman wrote an Op-Ed piece in The New York Times that predicts the opposite: the Republican Party is going to become even more radical, even more right-wing.

It will be the party of Sarah Palins - naked emotion and religious beliefs, implied racism and hatred.  The party that relies on "the real America" and "pro-America" to get votes.  The party that accuses its opponent of being secretly Muslim (like that's a bad thing), and declares the opposition's policies amount to a switch to Communism.  The Party of Intolerance.

But how? and why?  Here's a few reasons:

1) This election will replace many of the remaining moderate Republicans in Congress with Democrats.  However, the radical right-wing Republicans will stay.

2) The base seems to believe that if the election is lost, it is because of "an evil conspiracy", in which the mainstream media is biased in favor of Obama - and not because we are sick and tired of failed Dubya policies that McCain would continue.  The base is also set to claim that "the election was stolen", because the group ACORN had some false registrations.  McCain even declared that ACORN "is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."  These claims just alienate the Republicans and their base even further from the democratic electoral process.

What this demonstrates is that the Republicans are moving farther and farther right, into the extremes, where they only listen to their base, those evangelical and radical conservatives.  In doing so, they lose the more moderate mainstream voters, whose support is crucial.  If this does play out, I expect the Republicans to sort of fade off into a radical group.  I know it's a big claim, but it seems to me that this election can kill off the Republicans as a major party - especially if the Democrats win a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.  

After all, this is America, the land of opportunity and freedom, and equality.  So let's show the Republicans tomorrow that we will stand up for the America created in the Constitution, and not the America that the Republicans represent: intolerance, dirty tricks, and hatred.