[Serious] Is conservative Republicanism dead?

[Angrboda]

Given the changing demographics and culture in the country, the Republican base was shrinking. In order to remain relevant, they could do one of two things. They could expand their base by becoming more moderate, or they could increase the participation level of their constituents by appealing to the more extreme elements in their base and reducing compromise and bipartisan concessions. They chose the latter. I think that's a dead-end strategy, but one way or another, Republicanism as we knew it was doomed to extinction. It's just a question of whether they can use authoritarian policies to keep them relevant and sufficiently powerful to sustain the party. I think it's just a matter of time, but the drama has many years before it finally plays out. The current shift rightward has been going on for over 30 years and things are still not much different from 30 years ago. It will take a long time unless they suffer catastrophic reversals. Failing to recapture the senate in 2022 and the president in 2024 could go a long way along the path to irrelevancy. The key battlegrounds, however, are in the states, not the federal government. Republicans are much better off at the state level than nationally.