# Who will replace the GOP when they go out of style? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 18, 2015, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-replace-the-gop-when-they-go-out-of-style/720278 "2015-05-18T01:00:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-replace-the-gop-when-they-go-out-of-style/720278/41 "2015-05-22T11:04:06Z")
The funny thing is, there arguably isn’t a strong “Republican Party” now. There’s the “conservative movement” doing business as the Republican Party. There’s a little historical continuity with the pre-Watergate GOP, but the present ideological party is something that was codified and developed later. If the GOP today looks at Ronald Reagan as the Father of the Party, well, in a weird way he probably is to them. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-replace-the-gop-when-they-go-out-of-style/720278/42 "2015-05-22T11:26:50Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > During and after the Civil War, the Democrats got slammed as the party of slavery and treason, and were out of power for a very long time. They survived. During the Great Depression, the Republicans got slammed as the party of depression and ruin, and were out of power for a very long time. They survived. The Republican party now is doing better than any of those two parties were doing at the time. I think this has something to do with the Republican strength in the past two midterms. The midterm voters tend to skew much older than in presidential elections, and those New Deal Democrats are dying off. The most reliable voters, over 65, are far more Republican. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-replace-the-gop-when-they-go-out-of-style/720278/43 "2015-05-22T16:28:51Z")
Neither party is going to disappear and be replaced, but both parties are likely to have very different ideologies and constituencies decades from now. Both parties are very different from what they were in 1880, but neither has vanished, after all. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-replace-the-gop-when-they-go-out-of-style/720278/44 "2015-05-22T20:15:11Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > The funny thing is, there arguably isn’t a strong “Republican Party” now. There’s the “conservative movement” doing business as the Republican Party. > > There’s a little historical continuity with the pre-Watergate GOP, but the present ideological party is something that was codified and developed later. If the GOP today looks at Ronald Reagan as the Father of the Party, well, in a weird way he probably is to them. That is very much not the case-the Republican Party has very much had a strong continuity has the party of business interests since at least 1896 if not longer, the main difference being that the party won over Southern white voters starting in the 1960s. Anti-FDR rhetoric wasn’t at all dissimilar from anti-Obama rhetoric. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-replace-the-gop-when-they-go-out-of-style/720278/45 "2015-05-22T20:29:11Z")
I am a republican and I am so fed up with nothing but idiots running for elections that I am on the verge of bailing. I know quite a few others who are saying the same thing about both parties. Both parties have a large segment of voters who are undesirable but neccessary to win elections. I wish both parties would agree on some pltform where neither party catered to idiots. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-replace-the-gop-when-they-go-out-of-style/720278/46 "2015-05-22T21:26:17Z")
Things change. Political parties carve new channels the way old rivers do, they go with the flow, not of water but of their target audience. And the money. Whoever can collect the most money will win the next Presidential election, for certain, message no longer matters. It wasn’t so long ago that a large bloc of “Reagan Democrats” crossed the aisle and elected Ron in a huge landslide. And Ronald Reagan started out in politics as a Democrat and union president. That election was over before I even got off work to vote. I was a Democrat in those days and felt robbed. It wasn’t so long ago that the Democratic party was still very rural southern and very racist. See George Wallace. That was in the '60s, before that see who supported the slave states, it wasn’t the GOP, they at the time of slavery were the urban liberals of the north. The current apparent polarization of the general population is a result of the new media of the internet. People express themselves in welcoming echo chambers where they can communicate with like-minded people. See the SDMB. Or see Rush Limbaugh. This provides a false impression that everyone agrees with your viewpoint. But it just is not expressed in reality. Both the Democratic party and the GOP are so similar in message that the OP of this thread is laughable. The GOP and the Democrats of 20, 30 years from now will no longer even resemble their current avatars. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2015, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-replace-the-gop-when-they-go-out-of-style/720278/47 "2015-05-23T01:14:37Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > You honestly think one of these dumbass Republican nominees stands a chance? I do. I think Jeb stands a chance. And if the economy is in recession, I’d give 2:1 odds to the GOP. Even if the Republican House and Senate caused the recession (admittedly unlikely in 2016). The economy and incumbency determines the Presidential outcome. Everything else swings the popular vote usually less than 2 points in one direction or another. Barring substantial spoiling by third parties. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2015, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-replace-the-gop-when-they-go-out-of-style/720278/48 "2015-05-23T04:56:53Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > That is very much not the case-the Republican Party has very much had a strong continuity has the party of business interests since at least 1896 if not longer, the main difference being that the party won over Southern white voters starting in the 1960s. Anti-FDR rhetoric wasn’t at all dissimilar from anti-Obama rhetoric. On reflection, I concede that. But the GOP has certainly benefited and become _dominant_ by absorbing the Southern Democrats and the Bible-thumpers since 1970 or so, rather than by just being the party of Hartley and Taft. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-replace-the-gop-when-they-go-out-of-style/720278.md?page=2)