How Jesus Killed The Elephants

Once upon a time, I was a Republican. I spent my formative years under the watchful, avuncular, rheumy eyes of Ronnie Ray-gun and was raised to fear and distrust the institutions of government, particularly the Russian government but also my own. I learned that heavy-metal was evil, gay people were all child molesters and that animals only had themselves to blame for getting in the way of progress when it brutally, remorselessly crushed them and obliterated their habitats.
When I was finally able to participate in my first election, I voted, as a good Republican and a good sailor, for George Walker Bush in 200o. At last an end to the freedom crushing, morally bankrupt Communist abetting Clintons with their pot, broken home, Marxist agenda and orgies.
Then with horrific slowness, as I began to see what effect my vote had had on the country and the world, the protective, insulating scales were spitefully pried from my eyes and I could see exactly what had taken place.
All drama aside (as fun as it is) the fact is this: I was raised a Republican (by a hippie no less) and I genuinely believed most of former president Reagan's positions were correct. Communism was a bad idea, it dehumanized people and turned them into commodities. The free market created wealth through innovation and competition. No nation could enjoy freedom peacefully without being prepared to defend it with violence. These were what I took to be the foundation of the Republican party. What escaped my young mind and continued to escape me until we were several years into W's reign was that times and people change and political realities possibly do so faster than anything else out there. George H. lost to Slick Willy (that's Bill Clinton for you kids) and that loss frankly decimated the party. To be fair, Ronnie had only won in 1980 by creating a coalition that captured a large number of fiscally conservative Democrats (often called "Reagan" or "blue dog" Democrats"). His immediate successor failed to hold on to them. Republican strategists at this point had hit on a new plan however. It took years to come to full fruit but resulted in the recovery of the White House for the Republicans by George W. Simply put, the fiscal conservatives courted and won over the social conservatives.
Unfortunately for us all, "social conservative" isn't as broad a term as it sounds. Here in the United States what it tends to mean is christian fundamentalist. Even more unfortunately this group of previously dormant voters (who had up to this point voted primarily on the basis of relevant national issues, like the rest of us) soon realized that they could use their new found influence over the Republican politicians who voted for them to direct broader national policies in line with their fundamental, religious views. It was no longer sufficient to live their own lives in according with the wishes of a supposed omnipotent sky-fairy, it became, in the collective mind, absolutely vital to ensure that everyone else did too.
This was the beginning of what we now politely refer to as the culture wars. In reality, what we face now is a full scale religious war, a crusade fought in the name of fundamental religiosity against anyone and everyone who doesn't kneel at an approved altar. And it this, the direct result of using these people for the sake of their votes, that the Republican party has to thank for their current unpopularity.
It is a somewhat (but not very) bizarre fact that the act of including a group of people has resulted in the diminishing of the party. In brief, as the fundies became more prominent their irrational and frankly combative ideology has push away an ever growing number of other Americans. What's worse, the majority of the fundies are also largely ignorant, rural types.
As a quick note, I am not using either "ignorant" or "rural" in a derogatory sense. The group I am referring to are ignorant in that they tend to have an ill-informed world view, that is they lack a great deal of information that is relevant (but only on/to those issues that stretch beyond their backyards) and being rural simply means that they are more often than not insulated from the larger world and thus, other perspectives. Only those persons in said communities that willfully and with knowing intent remain ignorant or isolated are worthy of fear, anger and/or contempt.
Getting back to my point however, all of this tends to blend together and get pressed through the filter of assumed authority that religions create. Net result?
Out-group xenophobia and comprehensive intolerance, backed by absolute conviction. As my dear, sainted mother (HA!) put it, "It's no longer simply I'm right and you're wrong, its now I'm right and you're evil."
The core problem with this being that as long as such a large block of people persist in assuming...even insisting on the absolute veracity and righteousness of their positions on all fronts, they absolutely cannot debate or compromise on anything and by definition you cannot have a compromise by one party alone. Politics is essentially defined by compromise. It is the fine old art of giving and thereby receiving concessions from your rivals/neighbors in order that you can live together, peaceably. Finally, just to put the icing on the cake, this has been going on for so long now that people who have been raised on this sort of thing have been elected into office and are therefore even less likely to set aside their desire to introduce policies based on their own religious convictions in order to serve the common good. Indeed, in many cases they cannot even conceive of the idea that we can have a collective, national interest that _doesn't_ stem from their particular dogmas.
Thus, I contend that the Republican party has lost its ability to engage in the basic activity of a political party; the ability to negotiate, peacefully and loyally, with other national political factions and find mutually acceptable compromises on policy decisions. They are in fact in tremendous danger of devolving into something like a less violent, though no less militant reflection of the Taliban. As such, it is no longer a political party in the truest sense of the word.
And that, Friends, is How Jesus Killed The Elephants.