It is hard to see how and why the leadership of the Republican party does not see the danger at hand for its future. Its leaders are not aware that their party could be only a few years from extinction. Things do die. Larger entities than the Republican party – whole empires and powerful corporations, in fact – have disappeared through history. A political party disappearing is nothing. On this business of the fiscal cliff, the country already is suspicious of Republicans by a 2-1 margin. So within a few weeks, the country could blame Republicans for throwing the economy back into recession. And let us say that another storm like Sandy brews up in the Atlantic next summer, pushes past Florida and instead of wrecking New York and New Jersey parks itself over Atlanta this time. Already caught in a demographic squeeze as the nation’s population changes, embroiled in an extended Bush recession and then pasted by another blow from the change in climate that Republicans deny – the GOP could be at the precipice leading into the 2014 midterm elections. They just lost an election that if President Obama had had a better night in Denver one evening might have turned into a landslide. And now, another storm named Hillary already is beginning to vent its first soft but undeniable breezes for 2016.
That is the state of the Republican party today – danger all around, yet hiding behind bombastic rhetoric. It has already botched its relationship with the new demography of the country being led by the HispanicLatino population. It is about to botch the financial markets, and it has set itself up for another public manifestation of global warming. It won presidential elections in 2000 and 2004 that it should have lost and now has ensconced itself in the House of Representatives through gerrymandered districts. The new demography eventually will undo those districts. But the nation does not have time to wait, and Republicans are vulnerable to be blamed for any impending disaster. When someone can be blamed for the weather, well, that is an awful lot. Not even an Abe Lincoln could bear that weight.
The Republican party is now caught up in a corner of its own making. Everyone knows that in creating super-safe Republican congressional districts, it empowered vocal right-wing minorities in each district to control the fate of the national party. With no way to change intellectually, the party might be doomed. And that is unfortunate if it happens. One-party rule anywhere is not good for the country. As much as a progressive that I am, I – no one – can be right all of the time.
The country needs a strong and viable Republican party as much as it needs a strong and viable HispanicLatino population, which is what I believe will be the saving grace of the country in this century. I am not necessarily encouraging HispanicLatinos to become Republicans. But the Republican party must change. It used to be that white Democrats who became Republicans claimed that the Democratic party had left them. Well, now the country is leaving them.
Despite the reality of the need to change, it is easy to see why the GOP ultimately will oppose immigration reform that calls for the legalization of 6-12 million residents who have made their way into the country illegally. A party that just lost the Presidency by about 3.7 million votes is going to be hard-pressed to make millions of members of the new demography into voters.
The fact is that in our personal lives, certain things are not appropriate. The same is true of the political life of a country. Today, it is not appropriate for Republicans to remain what they are and what the country has rejected – except for an aberrational election in 2010 that swept into power state legislature that then created the Republican majority in the House of Representatives.
Republican leaders today do not realize they really are living on borrowed time.
Jesse Treviño is the former editorial page editor of The Austin American-Statesman.