"... Our nation needs political parties to connect up different groups of Americans, sift through prospective candidates, deliberate over priorities, identify common principles, and forge a platform." But the GOP won't be included.

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COMMENTS: 
*  Yeah when only 30 to 40% of the nation's eligible voting population votes in the midterm elections, it is a sure fire way to show the future right ?. The future belongs to the Democrats who embrace a changing population and nation whilst the Republican Party conserves its way into extinction.
*  The Republican party has transformed itself into a circus. A cheap one.
*  I agree. The GOP has become the party of fear and hate. Nothing like the party of Lincoln. By turning their backs on Hispanics, they just wiped out 30 percent of their support. They will never hold the white house again until they move closer to the center.
*  I would be honored to attend their funeral, I'll play taps.
*  I think to say there will no longer be a republican party is a little simplistic. the likelyhood is that it will still "be"...the question is what will it look like.
*  The republicans have become the old Whig Party they replaced. The republicans have lost their way. They do not really represent conservatism, they are a party divided who cannot or will not be able to provide the solutions needed to solve America's problems and plan for the future.
*  "the death of the Republican Party"?? No the death of the NEW Republican Party. I'm an 'old school' Republican, from the GOP of the 50's, 60's and 70's. This new GOP is simply a crazy collection of ideological phonies, liars, fools and lunatics, and no longer has anything in common with the REAL GOP. So GOOD RIDDANCE! The (new) GOP is dead, long live the OLD GOP!
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The Death of the Republican Party
By Robert Reich, February 15, 2016

I'm writing to you today to announce the death of the Republican Party. It is no longer a living, vital, animate organization.

It died in 2016. RIP.

It has been replaced by warring tribes:

Evangelicals opposed to abortion, gay marriage, and science.

Libertarians opposed to any government constraint on private behavior.

Market fundamentalists convinced the "free market" can do no wrong.

Corporate and Wall Street titans seeking bailouts, subsidies, special tax loopholes, and other forms of crony capitalism.

Billionaires craving even more of the nation's wealth than they already own.

And white working-class Trumpoids who love Donald. and are becoming convinced the greatest threats to their wellbeing are Muslims, blacks, and Mexicans.

Each of these tribes has its own separate political organization, its own distinct sources of campaign funding, its own unique ideology - and its own candidate.

What's left is a lifeless shell called the Republican Party. But the Grand Old Party inside the shell is no more.

I, for one, regret its passing. Our nation needs political parties to connect up different groups of Americans, sift through prospective candidates, deliberate over priorities, identify common principles, and forge a platform.

The Republican Party used to do these things. Sometimes it did them easily, as when it came together behind William McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt in 1900, Calvin Coolidge in 1924, and Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Sometimes it did them with difficulty, as when it strained to choose Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Barry Goldwater in 1964, and Mitt Romney in 2012.

But there was always enough of a Republican Party to do these important tasks - to span the divides, give force and expression to a set of core beliefs, and come up with a candidate around whom Party regulars could enthusiastically rally.

No longer. And that's a huge problem for the rest of us.

Without a Republican Party, nothing stands between us and a veritable Star Wars barroom of self-proclaimed wanna-be's.

Without a Party, anyone runs who's able to raise (or already possesses) the requisite money - even if he happens to be a pathological narcissist who has never before held public office, even if he's a knave detested by all his Republican colleagues.

Without a Republican Party, it's just us and them. And one of them could even become the next President of the United States.
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