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Kythas wrote:
We now live in a country where over 50% of the households in this country receive means-based government assistance in some form. Add in Social Security and Medicare and that number jumps to 75%. As long as this is the case, and as long as Democrats promise to keep protecting these programs, they will defeat anyone who says they must be reduced or eliminated. For this reason, I believe we have just become a one-party country. The best we can hope for is to keep another party relevant enough to provide a check on the Democrats in Congress.

I agree. The idea of reducing entitlements is quickly being marginalized into a concept that only "extremists" hold. Hence my point that we are moving towards being another Western European nation. Entitlements for a vast majority will be de rigeur. The rest will follow, gun rights included. We may see that progression slowed in certain parts of the nation but it will happen sooner or later.

The Annoyed Man wrote: Sonnyboy, that "growing extremism" was MAINSTREAM THINKING just 10-12 years ago.

Precisely. It is the nexus of my theory that I posted earlier. Like it or not, that is the way the country has been shifting and it isn't going to change any time soon. It may slow down for a while in places but it won't change course.

This is simple and I'm sad to say, last night was not a surprise. It is a symptom of the direction our country is already heading and has been heading for years. The idea of shrinking government and increasing personal freedom is untenable to the majority.

Like it or not, the United States is shifting to a Western European model. Socialist based ideals are becoming more mainstream and considered the norm. The democrats will become the de facto party nation wide as my generation and the one following mine will continue to age and become the majority. The republicans will have to shift their platform to include more socialist ideals to remain viable within the mainstream or they will become the de facto minority party always clammering for a few more seats away from the left. I would not be surprised at all to see the republican party fracture and vanish, to be balkanized within itself and splinter off into multiple smaller parties.

True small government conservatives and libertarians are going to become regarded as the extremist right as they are in Europe. Not to be taken seriously by the mainstream, only a small minority. It's already happening and has been for some time.

I have felt this way for a while now. I started to when Bush was still in office and everything I've seen since then has only reinforced this notion. It is inevitable. The only question is how long until we get there and we have our own NHS?