I disagree that you assert that Republicans are mostly irrelevant since they almost won control of both branches of congress on the last election and Romney may win the upcoming election.

Also, the Republicans of today are not the same Republicans of a generation ago nor has the GOP been a kook party since the Civil War.

And next time a Republican says we should not have govt investment or how Europe is worse than America remind him of govt funded CERN (aka tax and spend “Socialism”) which gave us the Web and the proof of the Higgs boson.