The Republican party is a cascade of symptoms right now. And it's very hard to see a way out of it. It has managed to construct an almost perfect Newtonian hall of mirrors — for each solution, there is within the party an equal, but opposite problem. There is almost no way to function within the party structure as it has been redefined by the various elements of the conservative "movement" without rounding a corner and colliding with the image of itself coming in the other direction. For example, let us consider the problem of "demographics," which is the polite Republican way of talking about the browns, and the blahs, and the ladies with their ladyparts potions. I wish I had a nickel for the number of people I heard tell me how ready the Republican party is to adapt to the changing face of America. The evidence always cited for the plaintiffs: Marco Rubio, "Bobby" Jindal, and the newly elected Ted Cruz down in Texas.
Okay. Even leaving aside the utter tokenism of the basic argument, Rubio is a pro-life fanatic. Jindal is even more of a pro-life fanatic, plus he's bringing into Louisiana through his charter "schools" a veritable torrent of Jesus-on-a-dinosaur propaganda textbooks, and he has all the charisma of a handball at this point. And Ted Cruz is completely batshit. -Charles Pierce on "The Demented Republican Party"
We saw a similar scenario play out after the 2008 election.
In 2009 the Republicans gathered a group of their rank and file (which included but was not limited to Eric Cantor, Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and Kevin McCarthy), branded them as The Young Guns, and sent them on a "listening tour" of the nation wherein they would supposedly learn what they need to change.
And we all know how that turned out.
