The Republican Version of Righting the Ship

Fourteen days from now, the GOP will have some serious soul searching to do. The Party which held universal power in government just three years ago will be licking it's massive wounds. Who would have guessed that such disastrous foreign and domestic polices could have lead to a democratic landslide? Certainly not Karl Rove, their amoral chief strategist.

Garland's theory of universal irony will no doubt present a significant roadblock to the reconstruction the Republican brand. One of the rules of this theory is that your greatest strength is also your greatest weakness. The GOP's strength has been that their base, roughly 25% of the country, are ideologues who support their far right wing policies regardless of the outcome. This gives them a tremendous advantage during elections because they need only muster another 26%, by hook or crook, to win. The commensurate weakness is that this 25% will be loathe to buy into the centrist shift necessary to realign with the rest of America and re-emerge as a political power in four to eight years. Instead the preference of the base will be to scapegoat the media, minorities, and the McCain campaign. They will surely ignore the misguided policies which lead to this inevitable clash with reality. This organization will face the principle stumbling block of addicts and alcoholics, you can't fix a problem until you accept that there is a problem and that your actions created the problem.

The GOP faithful maintains strict adherence to the rule of fools. When something doesn't work wise men change course, fools do more of it.