the r party is dead in the water ever being able to run on issues ever again
Yep. True conservatives will have to decide whether they want to try to rescue the name of the Republican Party, or just try to establish a party with a coherent platform that can appeal to more people. They know they must reach out to those who used to be called Reagan Democrats, equivalent of which today though would include more people of color, fa and so look more like today's often pretty diverse suburbs.
Lots of conservative farmers and businessmen are far more interested in the fiscal side of politics than the social issues. Their kids are educated in cities, end up working in cities or tech hubs near cities. They're about jobs, housing, health care, transportation... and college loan forgiveness because they know damn well otherwise their several generations are going to be stuck in a stagnant economy.
The whole hard line cultural war aspect of the so-called Republican Party of the 90s forward is kinda crashing and burning from within at this point.
Maybe the right wing social mantras are still there but for more of the young today they are window dressing, just another way of saying yo just because I need an apartment I can afford and I'm gettin' ticked off there aren't any doesn't mean I'm a fricken socialist.
But it comes out as hey if i worked in a pharmacy no way would i sell you birth control pills because I have a right to expect some respect for my religious scruples. Dirty little secret: he doesn't work in a pharmacy and could not care less about birth control pills as long as when his wife says to pick them up for her, it's not a hassle to do it.
OK then. We get that. It's like saving face, more or less.
But this GOP has its head in its elbow and can't count and doesn't understand how to extricate itself from the totally absurd position that a) they pitch red meat to a base that is now looking for jobs, health care, infrastructure... and b) they themselves never cared if Roe v Wade got rolled back or not, what matters is whether their high dollar donors are going to finance their re-election so they can pitch red meat to ... oh, wait.
The far right influence on the GOP has led to extraordinary projection of themselves as victims in need of all these religious freedom "restoration" measures, arguing that they just want to be left alone to practice their faith as the 1A guarantees them... meanwhile essentially insisting that those of other views may not be left alone to
their views and so must accept right wing pressures against women's autonomy and discrimination against LBGTQ Americans. Meanwhile K street says fuck that, where is the deregulation and the tax cut.
This stuff doesn't hang together. It's why the GOP doesn't even have a platform in 2020, just put on a show of allegiance to their nominal leader Trump at their convention. Well there's a hefty chunk of the GOP that is chafing at the bit: they know they're screwed after Trump has left the scene. They have burned down their own house by kowtowing to the arsonists among them, allowing primaries of their moderates and now losing ground to Dems in general elections every two years... and when Trump is gone, what is left to keep those arsonists' votes in line for a presidential election year? Another strong man? Plenty conservative Republicans are plenty uneasy about that prospect.
