My view: I believe it is a combination of all three, with #2 being the driving factor. There is no question in my mind that the racists and neo-fascists have long been a part of the Republican party, but I believe they were relegated more towards the fringe of the party (in the same way that anarchists and other fellow travelers have been on the fringe of the left). In a two party system, most people are going to associate with one of the two parties, even if neither party is a perfect fit, and there is no effective way (in my opinion) to exclude these undesirables from your party. You can only hope to keep them sidelined. Over the past twenty years, though, our society has become more and more tribal, so that it really does not matter what your party does or stands for anymore, because they're your tribe. The other party is and always will be the enemy (i.e., I have friends in both parties who would rather eat nails than admit Presidents Bush or Obama, respectively, did anything right). If the illiberal left were to take over the Democratic Party, would we be conducting this same analysis for them? I suspect so. Sometimes, it feels like we are heading towards the same place Europe was in the 30's, where your choice was either Hitler's fascism or Stalin's communism. But this may just be my anxiety talking. My hope is that if the nutcases currently ruling the Republican roost continue to lose at the polls, the voters will push them out in favor of the traditional conservatives that can win elections (this is where the cargo cult option comes into play).
Why I may be wrong: It's possible that the Republican party has always been a lie, and I just do not want to confront that truth. I grew up in a Democratic household (my dad and brother are both rabid supporters of labor unions), but I decided that the Republican party was the party for me when I was in college (for reference, this would have been in 1998). While I believed in the stated ideals of the Republican Party (i.e. meritocracy and individual freedoms), frankly it was mainly because I believed that the Republican Party was the more realistic and common sense party. That is clearly no longer the case, though, if it ever was.
That's a good and logical summary of the two-party system of today. I do have to say that the extreme liberal-to-the-point-of-being -illiberal faction of the Democratic party is microscopic, whereas the extremist right-wingers seem to presently run the Republican party, and many of them literally seem to be insane.
My view: I believe it is a combination of all three, with #2 being the driving factor. There is no question in my mind that the racists and neo-fascists have long been a part of the Republican party, but I believe they were relegated more towards the fringe of the party (in the same way that anarchists and other fellow travelers have been on the fringe of the left). In a two party system, most people are going to associate with one of the two parties, even if neither party is a perfect fit, and there is no effective way (in my opinion) to exclude these undesirables from your party. You can only hope to keep them sidelined. Over the past twenty years, though, our society has become more and more tribal, so that it really does not matter what your party does or stands for anymore, because they're your tribe. The other party is and always will be the enemy (i.e., I have friends in both parties who would rather eat nails than admit Presidents Bush or Obama, respectively, did anything right). If the illiberal left were to take over the Democratic Party, would we be conducting this same analysis for them? I suspect so. Sometimes, it feels like we are heading towards the same place Europe was in the 30's, where your choice was either Hitler's fascism or Stalin's communism. But this may just be my anxiety talking. My hope is that if the nutcases currently ruling the Republican roost continue to lose at the polls, the voters will push them out in favor of the traditional conservatives that can win elections (this is where the cargo cult option comes into play).
Why I may be wrong: It's possible that the Republican party has always been a lie, and I just do not want to confront that truth. I grew up in a Democratic household (my dad and brother are both rabid supporters of labor unions), but I decided that the Republican party was the party for me when I was in college (for reference, this would have been in 1998). While I believed in the stated ideals of the Republican Party (i.e. meritocracy and individual freedoms), frankly it was mainly because I believed that the Republican Party was the more realistic and common sense party. That is clearly no longer the case, though, if it ever was.
That's a good and logical summary of the two-party system of today. I do have to say that the extreme liberal-to-the-point-of-being -illiberal faction of the Democratic party is microscopic, whereas the extremist right-wingers seem to presently run the Republican party, and many of them literally seem to be insane.
Great response!