I read recently that his healthcare proposal would have been better than anything we're likely to see coming from the Democrats.

I'm not a progressive. I'm a liberal. At least I still know the difference. As the safety net shrinks, you may figure out the difference too.

Sergeant,

First, a minor hat tip to being a Republican/Conservative who comes here and is at least somewhat prepared for discussion, unlike your counterparts at RedState and the lunatics at NoQuarter. So you are to be commended for that.

I think your view that the Democratic Party is more like the Whigs than the Republicans is wishful thinking.

In the 1990s, conservative ideals were on the rise, but the 1990s playbook of smaller government, greater tax cuts doesn't help the GOP now, in a time of massive contraction of the economy. The political games of the 1990s were tolerable because people were not looking in the face of massive economic decline. Even during the recession of the 1990s, those who lost their jobs could at least take solace that they had a home to go to after getting the pink slip. Not now. There is real, palpable concern, and given the choice between (1) same-old same-old slogans from the 1990s and 2000s about tax cuts and (2) practical, pragmatic government that addresses the mounting problems and does so regardless of--or at least without adherence to--ideology (what old guys like me used to call "good government"), Americans resoundingly chose.

One would think the unprecedented losses by the GOP in the 2006 mid-terms and the further congressional losses in 2010 would shake some Republicans to the core and make them rethink.

What has happened, however, or at least what I think we are seeing, is a party that retracts, rather than becomes more inclusive, in the face of losses. Rather than say, hey, let's rethink our position on even more mundane matters like fiscal policy, and maybe loosening the ideological belt around the party's waist, the GOP looks like it is headed in the other direction.

We do not need to look as far back as the Whigs on this matter. The Domocratic Party faced a real crisis of continuance over the matter of civil rights. And but for cooler heads that said, no, we will not be held captive by the Strom Thurmonds of this world, they marched in the direction of the country on a critical issue, and abandoned the more extreme elements of what had traditionally been the Democratic base.

Just the opposite with the GOP. Go on over to some of the conservative sites I have mentioned. Many are apologizing for Jindal. But many, many more are saying, Thank God! This now clears the way for Sarah Palin! Besides, we always knew that Jindal was just a Party pick because he is brown!

The stand on the stimulus package was retrenchment, and anyone who didn't toe the line is now being openly considered as primary targets (Specter will undoubtedly get a run at him from the Club for Growth crowd; Collins and Snowe probably not--the, unlike Arlen, are in Blue New England, and they did what they did despite their party). On the issue of immigration we see a lot of Know-Nothingism in the GOP's position (recalling that the Know-Nothings were staunchly anti-immigration and comically anti-Catholic). Retrenchment on social issues like gay marriage and, of course, abortion.

This is a party whose conservative elements are calling not for a widening of policy considerations, but a retrenchment of conservative positions--across the board. Moderates be damned, and if you dare steer afield of the congressional conservative messaging group (led by Jack Kingston), you can kiss your Republican congressional cash support goodbye.

The Republicans will no doubt continue to enjoy strong--indeed, overwhelming--support in places like the deep South and Appalachia and the like. But that isn't the key to electoral majorities in Congress, or in a run for the White House.

Obama has four years to reframe the debate. The position on stimulus helped. Last night helped. He has the nation behind him. He is all about good government, and good government will beat ideological purity and theory in an election nine times out of ten in this country. Bank on it.

If Obama can keep being the good government president, and keep Congress in line, then the Republicans face relegation to small pockets. And as the whigs and Dixiecrats showed us, that could lead to party extinction. Extinction? Probably not. But exile? For the next 20 years, it's growing more likely. And we are a month in.