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Edited on Wed Jun-10-09 05:36 PM by Drunken Irishman
Whether justified or not, the Democratic Party was hindered by the cultural wars of the 1960s. This provided the Republican Party a chance to regain its footing after essentially being decimated since the FDR years. They found that opening, took it and dominated national politics into the 1990s.
While the Democratic Party often succeeded in local and state politics, outside of Carter's four years, Republicans controlled the White House for three decades.
Now we can debate what exactly turned America against the left, but I think most would agree it's rooted in the issues that faced America in the 1960s. The 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago essentially reinforced this view among many moderate Americans and it cost the Democrats dearly in subsequent elections. In fact, it took a more moderate preacher from the South and a resignation of a president to get the Democrats back into the national fold. Yet even that didn't last long and frankly, the Democratic Party as a whole hasn't really been the same since.
That blowback has slowed greatly since the 80s and its impact nearly non-existent now. Yet the Republican Party still was able to hold onto some control after the election of Bill Clinton in 1992. But it seems they're losing their grip with each passing day.
Will these events from the radical right ruin the Republican Party for decades? Americans don't take too kindly to domestic strife and if this continues over the next few years, I do believe it will have an even greater blowback for the Republicans than much of the 60s protests and domestic problems had for the Democrats.
The difference, of course, is that the Democratic Party was still in control of some parts of the government when it all went to hell for them in the 1970s. That made it possible to at least stay somewhat relevant. The Republicans, however, are worse off and a cultural war could ultimately bury the party for good.
If I am a Republican, I'm extremely worried about these nuts doing just that. They're already on America's shit list and this is not going to help. If they can't calm their masses down over the next few years, they're going to see an extinction not seen in modern American political history.
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