The current state of the Republican Party reminds me of a science fiction tale I read half a century or so ago. It involved climate change. As the Earth heated, the ice caps melted, the oceans rose, and major coastal areas were threatened. Governmental leaders worked frantically to rescue residents and, where possible, build systems of dikes – using Holland as a model.
But scientists, in their calculations, had not taken into account one hidden factor. To their surprise the waters washed over entire continents, drowning most of mankind.
Fictional scientists didn’t see that coming.
The Republican Party is in a death spiral that has been blamed on many things.
The blue wave of special elections has an obvious cause. Donald Trump has put the GOP in a vice grip that does not appeal to those outside the base.
It isn’t Trump. It all would have happened anyway. Richard Nixon’s Southern Strategy worked for a few decades, but now comes to demand what Karma owes.
It isn’t Nixon. Republicans formed an unholy coalition composed of economic libertarians, racial conservatives, right wing religious leaders, and Satan. Satan has now grown beyond anything anyone had imagined.
It wasn’t Satan. It was those who ran into the 7-Eleven to buy Satan his cigarettes. They dutifully ran that errand each election cycle.
What has not been blamed is the hidden cause, the factor that is never included in postmortem calculations. And, like those who did not anticipate that fictional seven continent disaster of my youth, they did not see the current tsunami until it was too late. Even now they measure the speed and depth of the coming flood at only it’s lowest levels.
Republicans don’t see it coming, but it is on its way.
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