The 2014 election yielded the highest number of GOP House members since 1928, and the second highest number of GOP senators. There are currently 31 Republican governors. The GOP controls 70 percent of state legislatures and enjoys single-party rule in 25 states.
Real Clear Politics election analysts Sean Trende and David Byler have put together an index of party strength, based on performance at federal, state and local levels. By their measure, Republicans are doing their best overall since 1928. "The Republican Party," they conclude, "is stronger than it has been in most of our readers' lifetimes."
Gee, what happened back in 1928? Oh, yeah; Herbert Hoover, above, was elected president on the eve of the Great Depression. The Republicans didn't win back the White House until 1952 -- 24 years later!
And the guy who won it back, Dwight Eisenhower, essentially ratified all the changes brought on by the New Deal. (That's the subject, by the way, of an upcoming post, "The Death of Reaganism.")
P. S. Mr. Gerson is as deluded as the rest of the GOP establishment. He goes on to say:
Eventually, Republicans will require another option: A reform-oriented conservatism that is responsive to working-class problems while accommodating demographic realities. This is what makes Paul Ryan so attractive as the Hail Mary pass of an open convention. But, more realistically, it will be the work of a headless Republican Party, reconstituting itself in a new Clinton era.
A) Paul Ryan is a reform-oriented conservative? That's rich; there is no daylight between the ideologue speaker and Ted Cruz; and
B) The base doesn't want what the establishment -- represented by Mr. Ryan -- is selling.
This trip into the wilderness for the GOP may take even longer than I thought.
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