So, beating people over the head about the dangers of gay marriage is going to save the Republican Party?

Dude, WAKE UP!! How well did that work in 2006? 2008? The strategy has clearly run into diminishing returns as old dinosaurs like Pat Robertson are replaced by younger generations who look at the marital record of the Family Values Crowd and see the sad truth.

To paraphrase my least favorite Democrat, that dog ain't gonna hunt for much longer. Look at the polls. Anti-homosexual animus is going the way of the Republican base, thank God.

I'm curious first if Mr Greener has bothered to read any of the letters posted about his article.

I wonder if he considers any of them to be in any way worthwhile, thoughtful or accurate in any way.

I wonder if he can admit that they have made points and countered his arguments.

I wonder if he can rethink what he wrote.

I wonder if he's willing to stand up to Rush Limbaugh and try to bring him down -- it's pretty clear that no elected republican official is willing to do it.

And here's a warning to all my democratic brothers and sisters:

Don't be too quick to proclaim the demise of the GOP -- it wasn't that long ago that Karl Rove thought he was dancing on what he thought was the democratic grave.

The Republicans have been victimized by past successes, particularly the southern strategy and their opportunistic alignment with the religious right. In addition, Pete Wilson's dabbling in xenophobia with his anti-Hispanic campaign was a disaster for the future: He lost 39/40 voting groups but won with "white male over 60." Now Appalachia and a few thinly populated western states are all that's left.

Republicans are nothing but the voice of the ruling plutocracy, the grumpy old white guys that hate taxes and social programs, working in common cause with religious fanatics who want to impose their apocalyptic vision of a "Christian" America. Their unenlightened self-interest is not the wave of the future. Even without the global incompetence of Bush II what's left of the party simply doesn't stand for anything. Family values? Fiscal discipline? Effective foreign policy? They're the guys that increased the national debt ten-fold from 1981-2009 and antagonized our allies. As long as the ever-shrinking base is insufferably fundamentalist nothing will change. It's time for the Kool-aid.

Both political parties would pass for European social democratic parties, differing only over who gets the spoils. Effective opposition to the Democrats must be coherent and truly different in policy matters, ie, a Libertarian Party that resembles Ron Paul's platform. No false piety. No morality police. No foreign misadventures. That party could credibly push the Democrats to address the budget deficit in ways the profligate Reagan-Bush I-Bush II spenders cannot do. It would be refreshing to have a debate not over whose friends get the perks but how to make America a better place for everyone. And please leave the empty slogans at the door...

No party can out-pander the Democrats when it comes to race. Thus, any Republican attempt to devise a race-targeting strategy in hopes of attracting this or that ethnic group is bound to fail since the GOP would be forced to adopt a necessarily passive, imitative, reactionary role, allowing the Democrats to essentially pick the battlefield and giving up the initiative. The last thing the GOP needs is more 'Democratic Lite' positions on the issues.

From a Republican standpoint, race is--or should be--irrelevant. Character counts and merit matters, but race is the result of natural happenstance, not political or personal choice. Individuals may, of course, define themselves however they please--race, religion, ethnic and cultural background, sexual preference--but for a political party to deliberately exploit and perpetuate those differences in the cynical pursuit of political power shows that political party to be amoral, unscrupulous and unfit for national governance. The Republican Party still claims to believe in things like right and wrong, good and bad, truth and falsehood. The day the GOP gives up those claims is the day it is no longer a viable political party--or at least not my party.

And about that 'Caucasian' business. My eyes are blue, my skin is fair, and my hair--before I reached middle age--was blond. I claim one of my direct ancestors, James Ellery, as a signer of the Declaration of Independence. As it happens, another direct ancestor--a great-grandmother--was American Indian; yet another, a great-great-grandmother, black. Like anyone whose family has been in the country for a few hundred years, I'm a mix of a number of races, so I don't think of myself as 'white' or 'Caucasian'. I think of myself as an American, without any hyphenated prefix required. So should you.

The Republican Party must split. Let the SoCons follow their own path. It's a dead end, but no one will ever convince them of that until they have experienced it first hand for themselves.

Without the SoCons the remaining Republican party will have the freedom to choose a path more acceptable to the rest of Americans who aren't single issue driven.

I see the new Republicans as agreeing with most of the goals already set. Instead of trying to take the country down a different road, I see them as steering us away from potholes and keeping us out of ditches. New Republicans will agree that health care must be reformed on a European model, but will provide alternatives as to how that would be accomplished.

Or they can sit and sulk.

Mr. Greener acts as if the GOP sat helplessly by as minorities were "jammed" into congressional districts "where they are the overwhelming majority." This is like George W. Bush saying that "Iraq was invaded back in 2003." Hello! Admit Republican responsibility, please! It was the GOP, for example, that put all the minority votes in a few districts in Texas. How does Mr. Greener think the Lone Star State went from a Democratic to a Republican House delegation?

As Bugs Bunny would say, "What a maroon."

I'd keep waving teabags around and carrying racist signs. I think you're just starting to get some traction.