LMAO comments:
"The Republican Party can’t win general elections with MAGA candidates. And I doubt it can win elections with candidates running on a platform to reduce the size of the federal government because half the country is dependent on the federal government in some form."
I see you as being half-right here.
It may soon become impossible for Republican to run for president "on a platform to reduce the size of the federal government" because of the reason you stated.
That is to say, "traditional" Republican campaign planks (in the overall platform) just aren't going to be enough any more. They may win in the red states, but they'll NEVER win again in the blue states. Such a platform may even be in trouble in the purple states.
Having said that, I believe you're wrong about the MAGA platform and candidates. It (and they) will become (as Mr. Trump IS) a hybrid of some [former] Republican ideas mixed in with a new populism. Much of that "new populism" is a re-embrace of "traditional-minded" ideas and heritage -- concepts the GOP elite has a history of paying a little lip service to before elections, then completely ignoring and abdicating post-election.
Or... to be blunt... on a national level, the "Republican" party (of the "elites") may be fading away in the same way as did the Whigs almost 150 years ago. Some other party may emerge, either to displace or else absorb the old GOP.
In the current Divided States of America, the old Pubbie party hasn't a hope of winning back the blue states, if they could be "won back" at all (I doubt they can). Heck, the Pubbies can't even seem to hang on to the purple states they had been controlling until the 2020 elections. As Paul Simon would say, "slip, slidin' away..."
Something new will have to replace the traditional GOP.
I don't know what that will eventually become.
I just know who I'll be votin' for in '24...
