The end of the Republican Party?

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

The possibility of the Republican Party dying doesn't make sense in the slightest.

While the brand has been hurt by the Iraq War, there still remains significant support in major segments of the population for GOP fiscal theory and a conservative approach to social issues such as gay marriage and abortion.  Iraq hasn't changed that.

And once the Iraq issue begins to fade, the public will once again start to focus on those issues.  It could be another rough cycle ahead for Republicans (and so, I think, the GOP deserves it), but 2010 matters so much more than 2008 in a long-term political sense: redistricting will be at stake.  It's easier to hold a 50/50 seat by making it a 55/45 seat rather than by having a strong incumbent holding it.

And no matter what happens in 2008, the Iraq War should be a relative non-factor as a campaign issue in 2010.  Much the way Vietnam failed to factor in to the 1978 Congressional races.  People were more concerned then with the Panama Canal giveaway than with what was going on in Southeast Asia.  Short memories.

There was a lot of talk about Republicans being "dead" on a generational level post-1974, and then about Democrats being "dead" on a similar generational level post-1980 (and then again after the 1994 midterms).

Bad as the drubbings seemed, the long term impact was virtually nil.  It only took a mere six years in each scenario for the party to experience a complete turnaround a win back control of the U.S. Senate.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

The end of the Republican Party?  Ridiculous.

I am sure the same thing was said of the Republican Party in 1932, 1936, 1964.

I am sure the same thing was said of the Democratic Party in 1972, 1984.

These things go in cycles. 

The tide goes out, the tide comes in. 

The Democratic Party still held Congress after the 1972 and 1984 elections.

In 1984, Democrats failed to win the Senate for the third consecutive cycle, and Republicans had something of a working conservative majority in the House.