The so-called "Demise" of the Republican Party is way overblown

[CountryClassSF]

media is hyper focused on demographics staying static.

[CountryClassSF]

Democrats are going to have the Millennial politicians who learned their political techniques from Barack Obama. That's a very good model.

What are those techniques? Racial division/agitation/fearmongering?

[CountryClassSF]

Americans actually support President Obama on how he's handling race relations 55%-42%.

But they also say race relations have gotten worse since he's been in office in that same poll. I don't trust anything about the poll, though, because they polled All Adults and then RV for separate questions, and then are the only pollster that claim Hillary is winning men.  I think it's an outlier all around.  

When their poll had Obama's approval going up, Gallup had him take a sharp drop and have him at 46-50. Both can't be right.

[CountryClassSF]

Has anyone played up race less than Barack Obama? Has he used race as a ground for patronage? Has he excused bad behavior by blacks? Because he is black, he really can't get away with much. All in all that is a good thing.  
 

Well, let's see.

Has any President taken sides without learning facts before?
-The first case I remember is Henry Louis Gates, when he immediately took his side, and had to do damage control with him and the cop.
-The second was Trayvon Martin, "if I had a son"
-He could have used his platform to talk about the false narrative in Ferguson, chose not to
-His point man on race is Al Sharpton, someone who agitates and divides as a career.

And many more.  This President has used race, and it's worked to his advantage through his entire life.

In the primaries in 2008, there was  a whisper campaign against the Clintons, and Bill Clinton said, referring to Obama "He played the race card against me."

So the answer to your question is an unequivocal yes, he has used race, and has excused bad behavior. He won't acknowledge the crime epidemic that has happened in urban America since his admin began the war on cops, either.

[CountryClassSF]

I'm not sure how much more inclusive the Republicans can get. They've spent the last 8 years obsessing over winning hard-left constituencies at the expense of the base.

The fact that Republicans have to gerrymander so aggressively just to have a chance at controlling the house and even several state legislatures shows that there is a major problem. At this point, they are drafting laws that draw districts that are not of equal population in order to maximize their votes. That behavior does not indicate a very healthy future.

Maryland. Illinois. No comment on those?

For heaven's sake, Chicagoland lost population and gained districts.

Gerrymandering doesn't change the fact that, even as Obama said, Democrats cluster in urban areas, more so now than ever before.  That puts them at a disadvantage in and of itself.

Legislatures have always drawn district lines.  Democrats can/would do the same thing if they controlled more state houses.

[CountryClassSF]

The Republicans keep nominating extremists, which is great for ideological consistency... but demographic realities will hurt the Party. The aging constituency of the Tea Party implies a steady erosion of support for Republican pols.  

We do? Last I looked, the tea party was decimated at the ballot box by the establishment in 2014. They nominated two moderates in the last two presidential cycles.