[icenine]

What I really think has happened is this
The recession was(is) structural not cyclical....the economy was overstretched like a rubber band. Because of the information revolution jobs have slipped away...outsourcing,etc...blame who you will. The economy is forever changed.

The traditional blue collar base that each party has shared since maybe the Nixon years (and consolidated by Reagan) is cast adrift. Perhaps neither party will be able to answer to their needs like the old days. So in this vacuum the Republican Party has lost the center it needs. The Democrats still cling to the minority voters, the "dispossessed" among us, and of course the traditional sort of educated "elite" but it is a bit better shape because of demographic changes. The Party that can adapt to these changes will last. Appears the party of Jefferson has a head start, for the time being.