"... there really is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for the Republicans to evolve, adapt and expand to match the country as it is now, not as it was in 1950 or 1980." But are they wise enough to do that?

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COMMENTS: 
*  It still blows my mind that the likes of Paul Ryan are now considered moderates in today's GOP.
    *  The Dems are now firmly in the middle. You have just moved so far to the right, so fast that it looks like they are the ones who moved.
*  In 1860, the Demcratic Party split into two factions, the northern and southern, and paved the way for Lincoln to win the White House, with disastrous consequences for the nation and the party as well. In today's GOP, the God men and the money men are truly at war, and with Trump and Bush both pretending to be both God and money men, there's no doubt that the party will go down in flames. I'm not sure what kind of man Rubio is, he's certainly not his own man…
*  Well, for a start Ryan is a man of good cheer in the form of expensive ($300/bottle) French wine. That is cheery indeed. The Republican Party has, as a whole, has become negative, impossible to lead, and pessimistic.  From listening to a few Republicans since Thursday, Krauthammer, Lowery, Bush, Christie, among them, I have concluded that the party is indeed going over a cliff. They are still beating the Benghazi drum even after being shown how deflated it is. Republicans for Hillary, which will include millions of women, will signal the death knell of the party. Carson, Cruz, Rubio, or Trump as the Republican standard bearer will suffer a crushing defeat.
*  The question in my mind is where can you go when you have built an entire political party (and support system e.g. Right Turn) based on nothing but pathological hatred for the President.
*   "Extinction or evolution for the GOP?"  Well since they don't believe in evolution, extinction is the only left.
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Two futures for the GOP
By Jennifer Rubin, October 25, 2015

The Republican Party is at the proverbial fork in the road. It can make a sharp right turn over the cliff and destroy itself. Or it could lean to the right but stay on firm ground. What would each look like?

In the gloomy view, House Republicans, after electing Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) speaker, sabotage him at every turn. They, in concert with a sliver of the Senate Republicans, orchestrate another government shutdown, or worse, a technical default in early November. The Freedom Caucus becomes the face of the GOP in all its anger, anti-government vitriol and anti-immigrant fervor. Meanwhile, the party nominates Donald Trump or Ben Carson and hands the Democrats 400 electoral votes, or it nominates Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and gives away “only” 350. (Alternatively, the GOP nominates an ineffective nominee whom the far right savages, handing the election to the Democrats and leaving the right-wingers to scream that once again they were sold down the river by the “establishment.”)

Massive losses for the GOP give the White House and the Senate to the Democrats, and perhaps in the next few cycles the House. A chunk of the GOP, more progressive on social issues and deeply troubled by the anti-immigrant bent of the GOP, after enlisting as “Republicans for Hillary,” permanently change their affiliation. The party of Lincoln is effectively gone.

Now, now. That is just one scenario. In the other, 2015-2016 becomes a new chapter in the GOP, led by new leaders. With a more contemporary, diverse and cheerier face, the party chooses governance over hollering. Ryan enjoys a honeymoon in which the government does not shut down and the debt ceiling is raised, but with some further spending reforms. The House and Senate pass reauthorization and reform of No Child Left Behind, removing the threat of federal takeover of the schools and encouraging school choice programs. The House passes an Obamacare alternative and tax reform, both of which are filibustered in the Senate.

Meanwhile, in the presidential race, Carson wins Iowa and then plummets in the polls. Trump declares that elections are for “losers” and takes over leadership of Heritage Action. One of many constructive and serious candidates (Sen. Marco Rubio, who is rising in the polls at the very time Ryan becomes speaker, Carly Fiorina, etc.) wins the nomination, pulling the party together and setting out an agenda that entices many who voted for President Obama the first time and stayed home in 2012 back into the GOP fold. A chunk of Democrats frightened by the Obama foreign policy and another recession, after joining “Democrats for [fill in GOP nominee],” permanently change their affiliation.

In the first hundred days of the new administration, with assistance from Speaker Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and a newly elected whip Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), the GOP passes conservative health-care reform, scraps the sequester in favor of a budget that restrains entitlements and adequately funds the military, and passes pro-growth tax reform. With Vice President Nikki Haley at the helm, the party embarks on a plan to revitalize inner cities under the Jack Kemp Act. Secretary of State Joe Lieberman and Defense Secretary John McCain re-establish solid relations with our allies and begin to re-establish American influence abroad. (Cruz replaces Rush Limbaugh, Carson replaces Sean Hannity.)

That’s a rather stark choice, more stark than these things work out in real life. But there really is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for the Republicans to evolve, adapt and expand to match the country as it is now, not as it was in 1950 or 1980. There is a point at which a party becomes so rigid and out of whack with the times that it breaks. It is not clear whether that time will be 2016. We’ll see how it all works out.
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