Great quote from Jackie Robinson about Republicans...

Less than 80 years after Douglass had received nominating votes, Robinson tellingly wrote in his autobiography, "I Never Had It Made," of the 1964 San Francisco convention: "A new breed of Republicans had taken over the GOP. As I watched this steamroller operation in San Francisco, I had a better understanding of how it must have felt to be a Jew in Hitler's Germany."

http://www.thegrio.com/2009/08/happy-birther-day-mr-president.php

Apparently Jackie campaigned for Nixon in 1960, but soon saw the changes coming...also, it's intersting to note that during this time in its platform had an equal rights amendment.

What a long, strange trip it's been.

I don't think anyone was upset to see the likes of Jesse Helms or Strom Thurmond leaving the party.

only while they remained small. Once they make a deal with one devil or another to gain numbers and power, they become unstable. Any devil they deal with is going to want to run things after a while, and that drives the party's traditional base away.

The Federalists allied themselves with the emerging Robber Baron class and fell apart. The Whigs allied themselves with the then unpopular abolitionists and fell apart. The Republicans allied themselves with southern bigots and survived. What they're not going to be able to survive is their alliance with the far right religious lunatics.

I'm seeing more and more of the traditional Republican base languishing without a party while voting for ours as a way to vote against the loonies their own party is running for office. I'm also seeing quite a few of them going over to the Libertarians.

The next few years will be interesting ones as we find out whether the GOP is going to oust the religious nuts to get their core back or if they'll simply succumb to infighting and cease to exist.

It's happened before and will likely happen again.

but it's a hell of a band!