Talk About the Deaf and the Dumb

Where are there enough intelligent Republicans on the Hill to oppose the proposed impeachment proceedings against President Obama? If they didn't get the message they were given in the last off-year election, they most certainly will hear it repeated in the presidential election to come.

They should have been in Los Angeles over the weekend, as I was, to watch the sell-out crowds at Dodger Stadium for the series with the Boston Red Sox. There were some 46,000 to 58,000 fans at the two games, seemingly predominantly Latinos. They were happy, enthusiastic kids, families and lovers, all seemingly affluent Dodger supporters, locked in an embrace with their team composed of players that would never have been seen at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn three quarters of a century ago when Vin Scully made his debut in broadcasting.

That's the story of the new America which the GOP has consistently ignored or misunderstood: the demographic changes underway in the country -- changes that will reflect the demise of the Republican Party. It has been short-sighted in its opposition to Obamacare, in stubbornly refusing to put an end to tampering with the right to vote, in choosing the wrong side of every social issue on the national agenda, whether it be same-sex marriage, job creation or the support of educational initiatives that would benefit the middle class or poor. The so-called Republican party base is sinking into irrelevance.

The legitimate fear is that the demise of the party will endanger the two-party system which is an absolute necessity to a thriving democracy. The depressing aspect of that decline is that an educated Republican like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a Princeton graduate, sounds like a neanderthal when he opens his mouth. It may be time for the creation of a No-Nonsense Party to correct the creepy imbalance that has infected the real politique in the nation.