re: #144 OhCrapIHaveACrushOnSarahPalin

Why would something suddenly shift towards normalcy beginning on Nov. 5 2008?

Why on earth would you think I was talking about a sudden shift towards normalcy? They could have continued their gradual expansion into minority areas. Instead, they trashed all those plans and reestablished themselves as a nativist party.

This IS that version of the GOP. The version we have now is the same. GOP 2002-2003 is no different from LGF 2002-2003.

I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean. I wasn’t at LGF in 2002-2003.

hey have been on this exact trajectory since Goldwater/Nixon/Reagan-Bush, and spent the 90s and 00s nurturing unhinged bigots like Michelle Malkin, Coulter, Walter Williams, Charles Murray, Dinesh D’Souza and other highbrow cranks.

Oh, no, it hasn’t been a smooth trajectory at all. From Buckley renouncing his earlier racism to Bush’s Hispanic outreach, they were actually making slight inroads into minority voters. There’s always been a strong racist streak left in it, but they had been somewhat on the outs. Now they’re back in, and almost everyone else in the GOP is following along.

You kind of seem to be fatalist about it, like, the GOP couldn’t possibly have gone in any direction but this one.