The Slow, Painful Suicide of the GOP

Some say the Republican party has outlived its usefulness. It's worse than that. They've headed down a path from which there is no return.

For more than a decade, many of us have written and spoken about the complete lack of courage of Republican politicians. We’ve accounted the hypocrisies, we’ve tallied the countless lies, we’ve pointed out their abject immorality.

In so doing, there has always been at least some thought that there might be some redemption of the party. Liberal and progressive commentators have often provided constructive criticism as to how the GOP might get itself back on track as a viable political party. They have maintained that the two-party system has, in its own way, functioned by creating ballast so that fringe positions espoused by one party or the other would not overtake the mainstream.

That theoretical redemption, however, has been entirely dependent on one condition: holding their party’s leader accountable for his crimes and misdemeanors, both charged…