The History of the Decline and Fall of the Republican Party

By Josiah Leinbach
Over the next several months many people will be mourning what they believe to be the death of the Republican Party. Wakes will be held, funerals attended, and eulogies delivered. At long last the GOP will be laid to rest in the family graveyard next to its father, the Whig Party, with the following epitaph (probably written by Reince Pribius) engraved on its headstone: "Here lies the Republican Party. Born 1854. Killed in action 2016 while defending its members against insurgent enemy forces. Leaves behind millions of faithful donors."
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No party can abuse its voters by showing so much fecklessness and violating so many of its principles as the GOP has done over the past decade, and still expect its members to remain faithful. Republican leadership promised to cut spending, fight corruption, and combat President Obama's unconstitutional executive orders. Instead, spending has increased (except for defense, of course), Boehner has tried to exempt Congress from the Affordable Care Act, and President Obama grants amnesty through -- you guessed it -- an unconstitutional executive order.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/05/the_history_of_the_decline_and_fall_of_the_republican_party.html

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Good article. 

Quote from: tac on May 26, 2016, 05:52:23 AM
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Republican Party

By Josiah Leinbach
Over the next several months many people will be mourning what they believe to be the death of the Republican Party. Wakes will be held, funerals attended, and eulogies delivered. At long last the GOP will be laid to rest in the family graveyard next to its father, the Whig Party, with the following epitaph (probably written by Reince Pribius) engraved on its headstone: "Here lies the Republican Party. Born 1854. Killed in action 2016 while defending its members against insurgent enemy forces. Leaves behind millions of faithful donors."
<snip>
No party can abuse its voters by showing so much fecklessness and violating so many of its principles as the GOP has done over the past decade, and still expect its members to remain faithful. Republican leadership promised to cut spending, fight corruption, and combat President Obama's unconstitutional executive orders. Instead, spending has increased (except for defense, of course), Boehner has tried to exempt Congress from the Affordable Care Act, and President Obama grants amnesty through -- you guessed it -- an unconstitutional executive order.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/05/the_history_of_the_decline_and_fall_of_the_republican_party.html

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Good article. 

So true!

QuotePolitical parties in democratic societies, like great empires, typically perish from internal corruption rather than from external force. Rome was not destroyed by illiterate barbarians who painted their faces blue. They only exposed and exploited the rampant decay. In the same way, Donald Trump and his supporters are not threatening to kill the Republican Party; the Republican Party killed itself and is using Donald Trump to do it. Perhaps this would be a more fitting epitaph: "Here lies the Republican Party. Born 1854. Went missing in action in 2006 with sightings in 2010 and 2012. Committed assisted suicide 2016. Leaves behind millions of abandoned Americans."

and this

QuoteLike Edward Gibbon wondered with respect to Rome, we ask not why the GOP was destroyed but rather how it lasted so long.

finally this

QuoteIn his book How The Irish Saved Civilization, author and historian Thomas Cahill details how Western Civilization survived despite the fall of Rome. To adapt his closing remarks: "If the Republican Party is to be saved -- forget about party politics, which, as George Washington would say, is itself a frightful despotism -- if America is to be saved, it will not be by Republicans but by conservatives.

Good read if you're a Conservative.
Bad News if you're a Republican.

I didn't notice the fall of the American Communist Party after all those losses by Gus Hall.

You ask the hot girl in the leopard-skin tank-top to dance first.  That way, you avoid the pessimistic attitude.
.

Consider the hand that the GOP is dealt. It's the bunch telling the handouts crowd that life in the leech lane is now a no-no. Badass family-bustin' ghouls, one and all, you betcha, forcing the welfare deadbeats to go find work, but more importantly PAY taxes and not live off them.

It's also a party of old men with withered brains stuck in the late 1900s who were unable to control runaway populism and a virulent sense of revolt within itself, fighting the TEA crowd far more than being anti-Trump...and that choice is going to haunt them for years.

Here's a long and sometimes bizarre look at GOP chairman Reince Priebus, who to his credit has done a great job in fundraising for that party...and now has the hugely unenviable job of selling Donald Trump. It's not exactly on-topic (as far as this thread) but it does point out a few things suggesting the party's in far better shape than we may expect.

Oh. Bonus quote....

QuoteIn the end, Priebus stayed. "I guess I'm a bit of a riverboat gambler," he told me. The potential rewards were too great to pass up—for the party, but also for him. After falling out of power in 2009, the GOP won back the House, then the Senate, and needed only the White House to complete its takeover of Washington. A chairman who presided over such a feat—knocking off Hillary Clinton in the process—would become a legend.

But then came Trump, a walking exaggeration of every negative attribute the autopsy had warned against. Priebus won the Establishment's heart—but it turned out voters loved Trump. As chairman, Priebus had a choice: resign or get behind the nominee. He chose the latter, even though it entailed addressing every outrageous comment from Trump.

Although Priebus insists, as he must, that Trump will prevail, the prospect of the chairman leading an historic Republican restoration is in serious jeopardy. "Reince is not the general," says Murphy, the Republican strategist. "He's stuck in the job of being the supply clerk to a losing presidential army." To many committee members, Priebus's sudden turn of fortune is simply bad luck. "Here you are, fine-tuning the system to deliver a victory, when the system became the enemy," says Evans. "If the Republicans win in November, Reince will go down as one of the greatest chairmen we have ever had. If we lose, he'll have succeeded by every metric but that one." He paused. "Of course, that's like saying, 'Except for that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?' " 

http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-reince-priebus/

I'm not big into understanding political theory or how it's changed over the decades.   I guess it depends upon what it's supposed to mean to you, not what some academic or unknown writer has to say about it.  Today's Republican party in the United States seems to have lost it's way, even if you could define it. 

I liked what Dr. Carson said about it when he first ran for office.  He said he was more interested in a "common sense" party, but that was before he went over to the dark side.