# Maybe this election is great for the GOP? Evolution. **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 23, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-this-election-is-great-for-the-gop-evolution/749902 "2016-03-23T00:18:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-this-election-is-great-for-the-gop-evolution/749902/41 "2016-03-23T18:08:08Z")
The GOP is all about maintaining the status quo or returning to ‘better times,’ and pretty much always has been. The whole ‘vote no against anything Obama’ thing is a classic example. Any change will come grindingly slowly and with much handwringing and naysaying. Witness the SCOTUS debacle. Obama could probably offer the most conservative judge there is and the Repubs would still put the brakes on any hearings. “Give the people a choice” my ass. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-this-election-is-great-for-the-gop-evolution/749902/42 "2016-03-23T21:30:03Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > How long can this last? Much of their power stems from their happening to win big in a census year thanks to constant lies about the ACA that Democrats didn’t bother to refute. So they rode that false horse to victory and took gerrymandering to a new level as their spoils of war. They’re going to be hurt big time downballot with Trump at the top of it and much of their built in majority is going to fade. Then in 2020 another presidential disaster in a census year will be their final downfall. Ideally yes. But if the GOP suppresses the vote enough and the democrats demoralize their base enough then they can sustain themselves as a party for quite a while. The dems are trying to balance a public that is tired of plutocracy with trying not to step on the toes of the wealthy and powerful. The GOP isn’t the only party with a major dichotomy at the center of their political process. The GOP has to balance a xenophobic, racist base against a country becoming more and more non-white and multicultural, but the democratic party has to balance a public getting fed up with plutocracy with a government where the rich can fund your political opponents. Both parties are caught in a bind, and I don’t think either one is at an advantage. I do think that demographic trends will crater the GOP in the 2020s, I think 2008 was just the start of the problems for the GOP regarding the rise of minority and millennial voters and the fall of older white voters. But the dems are going to have a tough time pretending to be anti-plutocratic without actually doing anything substantive to avoid pissing off the rich and powerful. Point being, I think a lot of people who lean dem will just lose interest and stay home which, along with voter suppression from the GOP, will allow GOP landslide elections like we saw in 2010 and 2014. Those elections were not due to the country becoming conservative as much as democrats staying home. If democrats do not give their voters a reason to show up at the polls, and the GOP continues to pursue voter suppression tactics, then the GOP can survive for quite a while in its current form. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-this-election-is-great-for-the-gop-evolution/749902/43 "2016-03-23T21:35:35Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > But the dems are going to have a tough time pretending to be anti-plutocratic without actually doing anything substantive to avoid pissing off the rich and powerful. So what happens if they **do** do something substantive to piss off the rich and powerful? ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-this-election-is-great-for-the-gop-evolution/749902/44 "2016-03-23T21:48:21Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > So what happens if they **do** do something substantive to piss off the rich and powerful? The rich and powerful fund their primary opponents, and fund their general election opponents. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-this-election-is-great-for-the-gop-evolution/749902.md?page=2)