At least the GOP as we know it. It will be around in name perhaps for a long time but will have to change to stay around in any real sense. If they continue in their current course they will become a bickering 'has been' fighting among themselves over the meager spoils.
The GOP just found out it’s "Angry White Guy" base is no longer enough to win national elections against the reinvigorated Democratic party. Massive amounts of money and lying ads don’t work either. Hate mongering radio shows and TV media support will not put them in office.
While they will be a force to be reckoned with for years to come, as long as we Democrats continue to work as well as we have since Obama came on the national scene the GOP is going to get less and less relevant unless they change and change a lot.
If they continue to bicker so much internally and refuse to enter into a real meaningful dialog they will be seen my more and more voters as a do nothing entity. That means voters will vote for parties they see as problem solvers. Voters know that sometimes (well make that usually) it is necessary to compromise a little (or a lot too) to get what you need.
When you go to the polls there are usually parties outside the real mainstream that may or may not have interesting and sometimes good ideas. But voters know voting for them is just throwing your vote away as they cannot win and if they did win while some of their ideas are good they would not be able to get enough congressional support to make any changes. So they vote for the party that has the best chance to win that will promote their ideas into legislation. Ralph Nader had some interesting ideas but I've never been able to find anyone who voted for him. How many of you voted for him.
Just debating is not what we send congress people to Washington, DC to do. We send them to debate and then legislate. Here is a definition of that word thanks to Merriam-Webster.
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/legislate
Apr 11, 2012 – leg·is·lat·ed leg·is·lat·ing. Definition of LEGISLATE. intransitive verb. : to perform the function of legislation; specifically : to make or enact laws …
Notice that is does not mention anything about bickering over principles and then going home without performing the function of making or enacting laws. If we wanted just bickering we would vote for them to just participate in a debate. Many participated in debates to get the right to legislate for us. We pay them very good wages and give them good health care on our dime to LEGISLATE!
So GOP get your act together and legislate or take your act to debate forums where it seems to belong. Personally I want the GOP to continue their current path since it'll hasten the day their ideas are limited to debate forums. I just hope their current lack of will to legislate will not ruin our country’s credit. Gold does not pay our bills, the knowledge we will pay when our debts as those debts become due is the real deal maker or breaker.