The GOP's Implosion

I am watching returns come back for the 2008 election, and it is as bad as I had expected. Senator Barrack Obama will win big in the Electoral College while the popular vote will probably be very close. What we are witnessing is the end of the GOP in its 1994 incarnation, a coalition of the religious right, blue collar traditionalists, and Cuban exiles.

As a member of the Republican party since before I could even vote, witnessing the dissolution of the my party has been painful personally. As John McCain's campaign continued to tack toward the base of the party, away from anyone or anything that smacks of intellectualism. Abandoning the coasts and just about anyone with a college degree, much less an advanced degree, has been utterly disastrous. Never before have I felt abandoned by my party, but that is exactly how I have felt every time I hear Sarah Palin talk about the "real America" or the "patriotic parts of the country." Joe the Plumber does not represent me, and the idea that he is the heart of the party is not just laughable but sad.

The GOP will spend the next two years figuring out a way forward. It needs to be a bloodbath if the party is to have any relevance in the 2010 mid-term election. The Republican party must become a big tent party. My suggestion: Make Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger the party chairman. He understands the issues of the future like the environment and clean energy. He gets fiscal restraint and personal liberty.

May the bloodletting begin!

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