Any persuasive case for the Republican Party’s imminent demise must explain why the party’s structural advantages will fail it. EricLevitz writes on why the GOP probably isn't doomed
Illustration: Konstantin Sergeyev/Intelligencer. Photo: Saad Salem/Getty Images/500px The Republican Party and American democracy are having a bit of a falling out.
But conservative elites aren’t acting as though they believe millennials will soon be “mugged by reality.” In recent years, the movement has evinced far less interest in winning over the rising generations than in suppressing their influence.
Given that this is my view of the contemporary GOP, I was eager to be persuaded by Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg’s Tuesday New York Times column, “The Republican Party Is Doomed.” And my will to believe only grew upon encountering Greenberg’s opening paragraph: Greenberg’s argument goes like this: A critical mass of American voters never got over the 2008 financial crisis or made peace with the tepid recovery. Barack Obama’s fealty to the big banks and his failure to avert “prolonged unemployment” and “stagnant wages for the whole of his first term” kept the GOP in the game despite the growing obsolescence of libertarian economics.
This year, Mr. Trump extended his war on immigrants and immigration. Yet the percentage of Americans who say that immigrants strengthen the country and are not a burden has risen from 54 percent after the 2018 election to 65 percent now. This view is held strongly by 52 percent. Only 26 percent agree with the president that immigrants are a burden because they are accused of taking jobs, housing, and health care.
Meanwhile, the credibility of Greenberg’s broader analysis is undermined by his assertion that Democratic voters have grown tired of the cult of bipartisanship and are now “seeking leaders who understand how transformative this election ought to be for both the Republican and the Democratic parties” and are ready to deliver “a powerful, activist government after years of gridlock and political impotence.” I hope Greenberg is right about this, but the available evidence suggests otherwise.
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