The death of the Republican Party?

I've had a few things that I've wanted to write about recently but didn't find the time as well as a few articles I've wanted to post, which I will do.

The first topic is a recent op-ed column by David Brooks in the Nytimes: The Class War Before Palin. At the end, Brooks seems to imply that the Republican Party is in mortal danger because it is losing its intellectual base (thanks to people like GW Bush and Palin who criticize any sort of intellectualism as elitist) and is now losing those from the working class that would have voted Republican thanks to a lack of good economic proposals to help this sector.

While I certainly detest the recent Republican Party's disdain for intellectualism, I think Brooks is being a bit over dramatic about the future fate of the party. Let's think back 4 years to the last presidential election. At that time, pundits were questioning whether Democrats could ever appeal to "values voters" and spelling out the coming end of that party in apocalyptic fashion. How things turned around in four years, as Democrats took back both houses of congress 2 years ago and appear poised for a big victory this year. If the Democrats could make such a huge comeback in 4 years, it could certainly happen the other way, and I certainly believe that the GOP is capable of re-grouping after this election. And I hope that they do so in a fashion that allows for more honest debate about the issues.

As implied above, while I don't agree with the GOP on the issues and I resent a lot of the party's tactics in recent years, I still have some faith in the two party system that America has built, so I would not want any of the prognostications about the death of the Republican party to come true.