Electoral Shock Therapy

Not long ago we mentioned a relative who was a lifelong Republican and a highly successful office holder until, as he says, "the party left me." He's not alone:

Life-long Republican Chris Currey has a thoughtful piece over at David Frum's place, explaining his belief that his party has lost its mind. Currey doesn't exactly break new ground -- his fears and concerns will no doubt seem familiar to most who keep up with current events -- but his piece is worth reading anyway.

Steve Benen is right. Republican businessman Currey's article is thoughtful and compelling. Bennen also is right when he says that when a political party goes bat-shit crazy, as the neo-Republican Party so clearly has, "the only way to bring it to its senses is for it to suffer electoral humiliation."

The GOP went sharply to the right after the 2004 elections, and it lost in 2006. Republicans then went even further to the right, and lost in 2008. In response, they went even further still to the right.

If 2010 is an electoral bonanza for the GOP, the party will assume that the way a party wins elections is to have its members become stark raving mad. If 2010 is another humiliating failure for the GOP, the party may be more inclined to identify their most ridiculous and dangerous habits, and consider where they went wrong.

Republicans appear to have lost Chris Currey, and with good reason. But unless Currey has a lot of like-minded friends voting in November, the party won't bother to try and get him back.

We've said it before. It needs repeating: in a two-party democratic system, both parties need each other to stay honest and responsive to the needs of the nation as a whole. Restoring the Republican Party's sanity is as important to the Democratic Party as it is to the nation's political health.

If it takes electoral shock therapy, so be it.