thank you for that article. don't know if there's any "real republicans" left or exactly what they are. the party was certainly hijacked and put on the road to disaster. time to put an end to the neocons and the interests they serve.

Tragically, they'll make a comeback at some point. Conservatives are like Dung Fungai. That particular fungai cannot exist without dung. US conservatives have lots of fertile dung in the form of the "low information" rednecks, grotesque religious Dark-Ages fundamentalists, racists, skinheads and assortment of ignorant loonies that fertilize this vast land.

How can anyone really want or expect "small government" in a country of over 300 million people?

What kind of fantasy are these people living in? And don't tell me about the views of the founding fathers on this one. In 1776 the population of the U.S. was less than 1% what it is now.

Small government--smaller than what? Smaller than the corporations from whom it has to protect the general populace? Smaller than the foreign governments it has to deal with to keep the oil coming? Small enough to be unable to respond to a hurricane and the sinking of a major U.S. city?

I would venture to guess that "conservatism" survived as long as it did because the basic well-being of the population was ensured by what had been put into place by the earlier liberalism. In other words, people have lived off the fat of the New Deal for three decades and that made them a lot less likely to notice how badly the conservatives have failed them.

persuaded Eisenhower's father to loosen his association with this religious group. I don't think Gary Kamiya has the gift of prophecy either but as the festival of Samhain (Halloween) approaches the banshee may have something of great importance to impart. As religion is such a touchy subject in the United States, I was surprised to find that Dwight Eisenhower wasn't baptized until after he was elected President. The scarifying scrutiny of a candidate's personal life must not have been so endemic then.

Hmmmm... That's just too, too delicious!

A whole bunch of big gold stars for this. I think this is one of the best assessments of the Republican Titanic I've read yet. Many kudos!

You might want to wait until after the election before sounding the death knell of the right. In fact, you might want to wait to see how the left makes out in actually running the country bfore making such a pronouncement.

A more proper nautical analogy is that the good ship USA is in dire straits right now, and if the new captain doesn't do a lot better than the old captain, there's going to be a major disaster and/or another mutiny. Irrespective of whether he navigates from the left or the right. I personally hope he does do better, for the sake of us all. But we're in uncharted waters right now, folks, so its no time to make believe one side or the other has all the answers. These stormy seas are just as unforgiving for liberals and conservatives alike, and we'll all drown together if we're not careful.

Apart from my utter confusion about Mr. Kamiya's singing 'Ding-dong the witch is dead' a touch prematurely, I'd like to know why Salon (and every other news organization of conscience) isn't making America's dodgy voting machines a major story focus in the run-up D-Day.

Surely I speak for many millions when I ask: Who's in charge of those dangerous machines and the apparently buggy, riggable, hacker-friendly software that runs them? Can this equipment, these people be trusted? And if not, why is this potential crime of the century being neglected when it should be a headline news item?

I'd like to see a seriously in-depth story on that matter, asap.

Perhaps you could begin by asking Al Gore what he knows and thinks about state-of-the-art electronic democracy.

The conservative movement is not dead and no one is jumping ship. We are trading captains.

Obama is the new conservative.

He has to pretend to be liberal to get votes.

Just like Clinton did.

There are two parties, both conservative, both pro-war, both pro-wall street, both pro-NAFTA and WTO and both against the American people and voters.

We are repainting the name of the ship from the "Titanic" to the "Gigantic" - never mind the icebergs, FULL SPEED AHEAD!

I for one, will welcome our Red Chinese Overlords unless Putin beats them to the prize.

Or maybe Reagan didn't believe his own propaganda that was for public consumption only.

... The Republican Party and the "modern conservative" movement will die anyway.

Let's face facts - If McCain wins, his administration is likely to be far worse than Bush's. He will likely start a war with Iran, further irritate our allies, and totally destroy whats left of the economy.

If McCain wins and dies in office... then Palin will be the final nail in the "conservative" coffin. She is nothing more than Bush in drag... an incompetent boob likely to screw up everything she lays hands on.

Let's hope that the American people don't get fooled again.

Get the hell out and vote... Lets throw the Republican party and the backwards morons that make up it's base an anchor.

I verbalized my very first political opinion one breezy Autumn day outside my 3rd grade classroom when Nixon was running against Humphrey. It literally, just came flying out of my mouth to my own surprise from where, I'd no idea. But I knew I really meant it. If you'd have told me then, that in nearly a half a century later we would have a female VP from Alaska who spoke in tongues and who'd had her soul guarded from witchcraft, I would have told you to go easy on my best friend's older brother's hash bong.

Five years after that, I was attending Buckminster Fuller's City Center lectures on the perils of US oil-addiction, and how if we followed "Bucky's" "requiem" on solar and wind energy, we could actually be 50% energy-dependent by 1985, 100% by the millennium.

What the hell happened? The Conservatives. That's what. The irony of even their name, is astounding. By the time Ronald Regan was screaming "Tear Down That Wall," I was all but numb. What they wouldn't show us, was Regan screaming, "Tear down those solar panels off the White House roof!"

Life is supposed to progress, not regress; The contrary really feels a crime. Yet, that is what most of us baby-boomers have had to grin and bear witness to all of our adult lives, (With a slight gap of an OK Republican, Bill Clinton.)

Never mind the kids, Obama. It's no small thing to ignite new "hope" into these hardened old bones, who felt the last remaining rays ooze out of them watching Bobby Kennedy get shot, (the last of a chain of horrors.)

But this shipwreck? Now, THIS is a funeral I want front-row center to. This particular mutant, "Bill Frist", "Douglas Coe" evolution of "Conservatives Run-Riot" we've had to stomach for 10 years are JUST PLAIN EVIL.

And hey.

The higher you menacing pundits can get Pat Buchanan's comb-over to stick up in the air, the better.