Demographics, Data, Dysfunction

The Republican Party isn’t defunct–yet. The 2012 elections were hardly the referendum on failed Democratic policies that they were meant to be, and while the Republicans maintain a strong House majority, Obama is still in the White House, and a fresh crop of Democratic faces will be joining both chambers of Congress. Voter ID laws in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida failed to deliver the Republican victory that strategists expected–if anything, the persistent negative press surrounding the laws only served to incense the minority voters who might otherwise have remained apathetic. In the wake of the Romney campaign’s defeat, finger-pointing and stories of self-delusion have abounded. But the apparent decline of the Republican Party is more than just a narrative about changing demographics or the triumph of Big Data over Bad Data.
Even now, Boehner’s inability to steer the Republican Party towards a deal on the fiscal cliff has created the appearance of a rift between senior party leadership and Congressional Republicans. Tea Party inflexibility and Norquistian obstinacy make the Republicans’ argument about responsibility–fiscal or otherwise–seem hypocritical and trite. These games of congressional brinksmanship have made the headlines more often in recent years than any other time in living memory. The debt ceiling might have been passed off as a principled stand for greater fiscal responsibility. The current intractability of the GOP, however, just seems like petulance.
Four years of unabashed obstructionism didn’t work. No one escapes unscathed from a Do-Nothing Congress, much less the party in charge. Making Congress work again is undeniably the responsibility of both parties–as well it should be. For the Republicans in particular, less bickering and more compromise would go a long ways towards restoring their tarnished reputation. President Obama has pledged to make immigration reform a top priority in his second term–good faith cooperation on this issue wouldn’t be a bad place to start.