Despite the recent ascendancy and electoral successes of the Democrats, what with Barack Obama’s comfortable re-election last year, the Senate majority and what appears to be Hillary Clinton’s virtual lock on the White House 2016, not to mention the Republicans’ repeated self-immolations, I sometimes worry about how quickly political fortunes can change. Two years is a lifetime in politics and four years is an eternity.
I recall that the Hope and Change of 2008 was followed in short order by the mid-term debacle of 2010, so you just never know. Then I look at the slate of Republican politicos who will be speaking at this week’s “CPAC” conference, the annual conservative Woodstock, and I feel myself suddenly relieved of all anxiety.
With guests like Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Wayne LaPierre, Boddy Jindal Allen West and a whole host of other complete lunatics -- to the exclusion of more mainstream (read: competitive) Republicans like Chris Christie, to boot -- the GOP can only remain mired in defeat. And if they don’t learn something from their losses, they could very well remain on the fringes of the political landscape there for years and years to come.
