Does anyone think that the GOP defeat will

[MUAD_DIB]

make them reconsider their allegience to fundamentalist christians?

Will they return to be a party of fiscal responsibility after they boot
their present leadership, or will this pasting drive them closer to the
likes of Ralph Reid and Pat Robertson?

Or have they always ben fuul of shite?

[PATRICK]

1. LOL

Like trapped with a hangover with a loud roommate who pays most of the rent.

[MUAD_DIB]

2. It would be interesting if they did, but

I don't expect them to get off the monster they have made.

Right now it would probably divide their party between too few moderates and a few extra crazies.

[Ellis Wyatt]

3. God, I hope so

Wouldn't it be great that regardless if a democrat or republican won, you wouldn't have to worry about irrational, ignorant, bigoted nutcases trying to force moralities based off a 2,000 year old book of fairy tales?

[maseman]

4. This put the fundies back another 20 years

Look, back in 2000, 2002, and 2004 they pushed as hard as they could to get into politics. And it worked! They got Bush elected, they ended up getting both houses of congress in 2002. They had the Jesus Christers like Frist, Delay, that asshole from Kansas, the pResident, along with Alito and Roberts on the SC.

And what happened? The PR machine against fags, abortions and the "Libs will take your gus" ran its course. They were able to tap into enough people's emotions for a few years to win some key races. But as they were preaching these things some real issues were starting to make into the minds of the majority of Americans. Iraq, the "real" economy of lower wages, shitty healthcare if any, the dollar dropping, housing falling apart, social security, environment, etc. These things started trupming the BS Christian PR.

The people finally woke up to what was going on with these nuts. The harder they pushed the harder the pushback. And boy was it a dramatic pushback on Tuesday.

The most important thing in my eyes is that if a void opens on the SC then a complete nutjob will not be confirmed.

[kenny blankenship]

5. They're between a rock and a hard place

Without fundamentalists they can't approach a majority.
As Conservative Andrew Sullivan put it, traditional small gov't conservatives represent only between 5%-10% of the country.
The rest are lured in by bigotry (often religious in origin) or temporarily scared into the GOP by Gingrich-Rove-Goebbels polarization techniques (eg: the Democrats are Communists! or the Democrats are terrorist-sympathizers!) The polarization schemes can work for a while but they burn out. It gets people in the middle, but only for a time.

Bigotry, though, is much more enduring as a key to party affiliation, which means the GOP absolutely needs its alliances with racist organizations and religious extremists (in order to keep many of these same people screwn-over economically by their pro-corporatist policies).