Hey Tom, you've received my views on this subject in realtime as they've evolved. Fourteen years ago I wasn't concerned about it. I am now. Evolution of one's point of view can be very rewarding. You ought to try it sometime.
It's a mistake similar to the assumption of symmetry to assume that things don't change over time, and the actions of a political party 14 years ago are identical to those of a party today. Professional politics involves the application of a technology of politics, and that technology advances. The GOP operatives deserve credit for advancing the state of the art to a level which threatens democracy, and now there's a risk, as in any arms race, that their opponents will copy the strategy and techniques. The situation today is not the situation 14 years ago. The Parties are trying to cross a line that we can't let either of them cross.
Like many other liberals, you are badly misinterpreting why Republicans aren't happy about their party. I'll give you a clue: it has very little to with the Republicans in Washington being too conservative.
Like most Conservatives, you're listening to the voice in your head instead of what I said. Or rather, in this case, because I didn't ascribe a motivation to the disaffection among the rank-and-file, I left you an opening to project your own preconceived notions on my meaning.
There's a spectrum of belief on the Republican side, and it's reasonable to suppose that embattled Republican moderates are disenchanted with the hard swing right. But the grumblings are more varied than that, and include disatisfaction with the Party's pursuit of its own national agenda at the expense of local agendas (GOP operatives these days talk about "nationalizing" the next election to pursue the Party's issues instead of the voters' issues), and its arrogance in forcing its own candidates down the throats of Republican voters. Many Republicans seem to be figuring out that the GOP is no longer on their side and has slipped the leash and gone rogue.
Will the same be true of the DNC after the wheel returns it to power? Duh. Democratic voters aren't pleased with the same behavior, and on this side it's spiced by the perception that the national DNC agenda is losing elections. The rank-and-file over here are getting just as tired of the obsession with "movement" issues at the expense of traditional working-class Democrat bread-and-butter issues. The DNC seems to have shaped itself as a mirror image of the RNC, choosing its issues to respond to or counter the RNC's choice of weapons, and the result is that Democratic voters are somehow expected to give a rat's ass of the opposite polarity about every hotbutton issue that Republican voters are supposed to get worked up over. Lost in all the political maneuvering are the things that actually affect our lives, like job loss and economic upheaval. Who's on our side anymore? Sure as hell not either political Party.
Let me ask you something, Tom: Do you think that a permanent Republican majority would be a good thing for America?
If so, can you provide historical examples of one-party states that weren't tyrannies? Or is the historical record of one-party states exactly contiguous with Tommy's Commie Horror Picture Show of the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia et al; plus Nazi Germany thrown in for balance? If you could show me even one example where this story has a happy ending, I might relax a little. But I honestly don't think you can.