Jonah Goldberg in his latest article takes on certain gloom and doom prophecies by libertarian Conservatives over the future of the Republican Party. Some, including popular bloggers Glenn Reynolds and Andrew Sullivan are apparently concerned that the party has lost its way. Goldberg, naturally, disagrees. He surmises that the current brouhaha over Terri Schiavo won't really sink the party. I agree with him there; the next elections are a long way away, and memory is short. That said it could derail some of President Bush's short term plans.
The rest of his article is weaker. More or less he comments on how the people have predicted doom for the party, but that doom has not come to past. So the people predicting doom this time around probably aren't right either.
He also references the New Deal coalition that FDR built, and points out the inherent inconsistencies there. He does not, point out, however, that the New Deal Coalition began crumbling shortly after FDRs death and is now barely a memory.
Personally I think we need to define what we mean by the party breaking up or having hard times or whatever. Do we mean that the party will cease to exist? We'll I'd agree that that is unlikely in the extreme. Do we mean that the party will lose the current power it has? I would think that would be inevitable. The American people aren't 100% Conservative or Liberal. On some issues they seem to agree with the Republican Party; on others they agree with the Democratic. So it seems like eventually the Democrats will come back on top.
The thing about being out of power is it makes you focused. And the thing about being in power is it makes you arrogant.
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