“By every test we have...this is as surely a liberal epoch as the late 19th Century was a conservative one.”--presidential scholar James MacGregor Burns

"He has wrecked his party for a long time to come and is not even likely to control the wreckage." --James Reston, New York Times

the quotes above refer to the presidential election of 1964  in which republican candidate, barry goldwater,  and his party were crushed by lydon b. johnson and the democrats. 

only 40 years ago, democrats and more than a few republicans concluded  the fat lady had finished singing, the curtain had come down and the time had come to turn off the lights:  the grand old party was over.

on this 1964 presidential election map, red indicates votes for democrat lyndon b. johnson and blue represents votes for barry goldwater, the republican candidate

political observers and pundits from all sides conducted their autopsies and proclaimed the cause of death was obvious: one of the most severe cases of terminal 'kookism' ever. 

then, as now, the losing party was the beneficiary of unsolicited advice--however well-intended--from all sides (including from within), exhortations from the prophets of doom and reprisal, the gist of which was 'cut your ties with the kooks, swim outta the backwaters of extremism and float happily with the rest of us with the current safely in midstream.'

most of  those dispensing their rhetoric and wisdom were so blinded by their own inner vision,  they couldn't see the roiling eddies just down mainstream nor did they have a clue about the treacherous flood already gathering just around the next bend.

to those who now are now franticly flailing around in hope of grasping anything moderate to which they can cling and to  those 'conservatives' --and i use the term at great risk of literal accuracy--who urge them further into the deep waters of ideologic confusion in which they themselves are foundering, i ask:  are you so desperate you'd willingly welcome another 'new nixon' ?   

making that deal with the devil profited the republican party by gaining for them the country at the price of their soul. (it's no small irony, they couldnt have done it without goldwater's kooks--the little old ladies in tennis shoes who'd been pressed into service doing mailings, knocking on doors as well as running for-and winning--obscure local offices.) 

nixon's southern strategy--devised by none other than strom thurmond , in return for promises of less than vigorous enforcement of federal civil rights statutes in the south--is a perfect example of the kind of systemic corruption which can so easily fill an ideologic vacuum and infect the wounds of a political party in disarray.

it wasn't the first step--but perhaps the longest one--in the journey that has taken republicans from honest conservatism to where they are today.  yes, they can feel triumphant at the moment.  lots of healthy-looking people who seem to have the world on a string are only an appointment away from discovering they have only a little time left to live. 

as none other than pat buchanan pointed out:

For upon what do conservatives any longer agree? They both supported and opposed expanding NATO and intervening in Bosnia. They are divided on whether the NAFTA and GATT trade deals are good for America. They disagree on immigration and term limits. On abortion, the heart of the Republican Party is strongly pro-life; Goldwater was laissez-faire. Social and cultural conservatives hold that a society that legitimates the homosexual lifestyle is neither moral nor healthy. Goldwater came to favor gays in the military.

rumors of the democrats' demise are almost certainly premature as long as they themselves refuse to buy into them and keep remembering self-destruction is only republican advice away.