Was George W. Bush the Last Republican US President?

In the past decades, both the Republican and Democratic parties have become increasingly dysfunctional, but the dysfunction is much more severe in the Republican Party and has reached the point that the Republicans are incapable of nominating a candidate who has even a slim chance of being elected president.

George W. Bush was the last Republican candidate to have broad appeal when he ran for president. Sure, he was a conservative, but he ran as a "compassionate" conservative. It turned out during his first term there was little that was compassionate about him, and he would probably not have been reelected if it hadn't been for 9/11. US voters were reluctant to change presidents after the country's worst modern tragedy.

In 2008, the nominee was John McCain, who had once had a good relationship with senators on both sides of the aisle, but to win the nomination, he renounced his "maverick" moniker and began calling himself a conservative. That won him the nomination, but the country was in no mood to elect a newly-minted ideologue to the presidency. In all fairness, it wasn't McCain's new-found conservatism alone that cost him the election, he showed an appalling lack of knowledge of economics, and he picked a complete airhead as his running mate.

Mitt Romney was the nominee in 2012. From all reports, he had been a good governor of Massachusetts, but the Republican primary voters were not looking for competence. They were looking for an ideologically pure conservative. So, Mitt Romney sold himself as one, although his primary opponents branded him the "Massachusetts moderate," as if being a sensible moderate were liability, which in the Republican Party it was. Romney might have had a chance to be elected in 2012 if he had shaken the conservative label and moved to the middle in the general election, but he didn't. American voters don't want an ideologue as president. They want a competent administrator and someone who can work with both sides of the aisle in Congress.

However, no one can work with the Republicans in Congress anymore, not even other Republicans. The situation is worse in the House of Representatives than in the Senate. There are sub-factions within sub-factions among the Republican House members. That is why John Boehner left the job of House speaker with tears flowing down his cheeks, and that is why present speaker Paul Ryan can get nothing done. The House Speaker is a leader in name only. The Republican Party is chaotic and cannot be organized. It's difficult to remember that not that many years ago President Bill Clinton was signing bills passed by a House that had impeached him. That was probably the last time that bitter political enemies were willing to work together for the good of the country.

The best indication of how far the Republican Party has sunk is the present presidential nominee, Donald Trump. Everyone knows that he not only can't be elected president, he is doing great damage to the Republican Party. Paradoxically, many Republican voters support Trump precisely because he may blow up the Republican Party just as Brexit threatens to blow up the European Union. Far too many Republicans delight in the fact that the Republican Party is in the process of disintegration, and they're glad to do their part to help the process of disintegration along, not only by nominating an unelectable presidential candidate but also by electing members of Congress whose main reason for running is to destroy government.

The purpose of the Republican primaries is no longer to nominate a candidate who could become president of the United States. The purpose is to nominate a candidate who will figuratively raise a middle finger at the Republican establishment. If Donald Trump is much worse than the former unelectable Republican presidential candidates, imagine how bad the next one will be. Could we see David Duke as the Republican presidential candidate in 2020?

To give credit where credit is due, this post was inspired by an article in The Atlantic entitled "How American Politics Went Insane. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/07/how-american-politics-went-insane/485570/

 

Bush was president? I thought Al Gore was? Gore was the one who ended up with the most votes in Florida that didn't get counted.

 

Very possible. Lots of 3rd world Hispanic minorities in the country now, comprising nearly 20% of the electorate. They'll vote for the amnesty and redistribution of whitey's wealth party pretty consistently.

 

Nope. The electorate is fickle and suffers from short term memory.

 

Right wingers are hoping to keep looney, and be set for the INEVITABLE pendulum swing. They think it is a given that we alternate. So, they can be as looney as desired, and STILL be the other guys and be voted in. Then, they will rig things, like Rove promised, when he declared a permanent Republican Majority.

 

Over the years I have read about the demise of the Republican Party back in 1964 and then again in 1974. Then I read about the Republican lock on the presidency during Reagan in which no Democrat was expected to win over the next 30 years.

Today things are a bit different. Those who identify or affiliate with out two major parties are at an all time low. But they still control our political system the same as they did when the two major parties were at their zenith. Using Pew Research numbers, from 1936, the first year they started to keep track of party affiliation through 1950 over 80% of all Americans identified with the two major parties, average out to 50% with the Democrats, 32% with the Republicans.

From 1951 thru 1984 between 70-79% of all Americans identified/affiliated themselves with the two major parties, averaging out to 46% Democrat to 27% for the Republicans. The Republican Party hit an all time low of 21% in 1974, but rebound to 30% in 1984. From 1985 thru 2012 both major party affiliation was between 60 to 69% averaging out to 33% Democrat to 28% Republican.

From 2013 to today major party affiliation/identification as been in the upper 50% range ending up in June of this year at 30% Democrat, 27% Republican. The Republican Party has always been the minority party of the two. At least since the stock market crash in 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression. The 30% where the Democrats are today is their record low.

If it weren't for the Republicans and Democrats writing our election laws as a mutual protection act, we would have seen several third party rise up and challenge them. That is the thing, if there is one thing Republicans and Democrats totally agree on, it is no other political party will ever be allowed to challenge them. The election laws they write make that virtually impossible.

Don't worry about the GOP, they still haven't sunk to anything close to their all time low of 21%. I would worry more about the Democratic Party which at one time pretty much included most political philosophies. The Democratic Party at one could bring its conservatives, its moderates and its liberals together at election time, united in its goal of maintaining superiority over the Republicans. Now only leftist need apply for membership within the Democratic Party, they have become as much ideological pure as the Republicans have been since the Great Depression.

 

Probably, the dems keep floodin this country with non-citizens .then they give non-citizens free stuff, then they do anything to let these non-citizens vote as long as they vote dem. The dems do not care . As long as they get their way dems would eat their kids. No morals, no values, no integrity.