Former Republican Speaker of the US House during the height of the Republican majority, Newt Gingrich, dispenses an assessment on what got his party to the position they are in today:
Q: What happened to your party over the last eight years?A: They went off the rails. That's it. They took a majority that took 16 years to build and they destroyed it....
There was a fundamental misunderstanding about how to govern. The concept of red versus blue is a tactic, not a strategy. In the long run, in order to mobilize your base, you tend to become more intense and your positions become more vitriolic, and you drive away the independents. Then you are no longer a majority.
"They took a majority that took 16 years to build and they destroyed it."
It took over 30 years for the PLP to build their majority.
"Red versus blue is a tactic, not a strategy."
Nor is black versus white.
"In order to mobilize your base, you tend to become more intense and your positions become more vitriolic, and you drive away the independents."
More vitriolic? Check. Drive away the independents? Not yet.
"Then you are no longer a majority." Time will tell.
