Mitt Romney’s going to lose. His campaign is a mess, his messaging is all over the place, he’s extremely unlikable, his policy positions change every day and, let’s face it, the GOP is already looking towards 2016 and the midterms. Romney’s loss is most likely going leave the Senate in Democratic hands and might just give the House back (it’s a slim possibility but a possibility nonetheless).
So Obama gets another 4 years and they’re going to suck. Why? Because after getting their asses handed to them in November, the GOP is going to go through another round of soul searching and go even further to the right. They will claim, correctly, that Romney just wasn’t a “real” conservative. They will claim, incorrectly, that this is why they lost so badly.
As the party embraces its lunatic fringe ever more tightly, they will oppose Obama ever more fiercely. Compromise is weakness to a fanatic, after all. It won’t matter what concession the Democrats make, it will never be enough because the GOP will double down on their obstructionist strategy, the good of the country be damned.
The good news is that they’ll never be able to pull off another Tea Party bait and switch in which the GOP “splinters” and magically becomes pure economic conservatives, fools enough Republicans into voting for them and then does a complete 180 to embrace the furthest of the far right social positions. They’ll try to do it with the Libertarian movement but there are too many Libertarians that won’t play ball when the corporations try to subsume them the way they did the Tea Party.
Basically, we’re in for at least two more years (but probably four more) of gridlock until the GOP is finally punished by the general public for their childish behavior. It’s going to be a long, slow slog through the right wing muck but it will be worth it when they finally implode and banish the crazies to the fringe again.
I wish I shared yout optimism but I have lost almost all faith in Americans to figure anything out.
Perhaps not, perhaps enough people have already grown tired and disturbed by their craziness. It is wishful thinking on my part, I know. But they sure have a great number of truly insane people out there saying really idiotic things.
One other thing to note is that the Democrat field in 2016 will be outwardly more socially liberal.
2008 Democrats:
Q: Do you think gay people should be able to get married?
A: I support “domestic partnerships” in which gay people can have the legal rights of marriage, but I am going to make the mostly pointless semantic distinction that the official label of “marriage” should be reserved for a man and a woman.
2016 Democrats:
Q: Do you think gay people should be able to get married?
A: Yes.
Any Republican that says anything even vaguely similar to the godless liberal non-believers-of-legitimate-rape will immediately disqualify them in any presidential primaries.