Thursday, August 25, 2016

The New Republican Party

From FB:  Bruce Bartlett and others are forecasting the demise of the Republican Party. In the sense intended, I think they are right but they might want to expand their imaginative universe.  I think we might well emerge with a new Republican Party and its de facto leader will be Hillary Clinton.

To clarify--I can't blame her for taking on board all the Republican castaways in the current storm.  But the more she does so, the more you can see that this is her comfort zone.  I'm not sure she understands this sea change herself.   But after four years, she and we may both have forgotten that this was not always what her leadership was all about.

There is the inconvenient question of what to do with "the base"--the army of ordinary Democrats still trying to persuade themselves that they have a chance of accomplishing some kind of progressive program.  But isn't that always the problem with major parties?  The toffs make the rules and set the agenda.  The residual issue is how much they have to give away to keep the rabble on board.


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