Welp, the Young Republicans down in the States went ahead and elected this not-quite-young Ann Coulter wannabe (Audra Shay) as their new chairman.  Her lack of spelling ability goes almost as well-documented as her vicious and bigoted hatemongering.  Said vitriol isn’t even reserved for non-white non-Republicans.  To win her very own contest, she embarked on a brutal smear campaign against the moderate and actually-young Republican who ran against her.

In this age of 60 Democratic Senate seats (and faint partisan cawing from the other side of the aisle), a Democratic president, the epic downfalls of Sarah Palin and Mark Sanford, and Michael Steele’s generic (and frequent) missteps, even a bleeding-heart liberal like myself is inclined to look for the silver lining for the Republicans.  This is to say, was the Dubya disaster merely a lapse in partisan judgement? or evidence of true systemic failure?

I guess we know the answer now.

In a party struggling for relevance, leaders such as Miss Hoff (the moderate, non-crazy one) are absolutely vital.  Without recasting their party in a brand new, positive, progressive light, the Republicans lie in utter ruin.  Shay’s election does not scare me as a liberal, because she poses no threat.  If even Ann Coulter’s myriad bestsellers haven’t lead to the American Aryan uprising, Shay will remain similarly impotent.  It’s more that Shay’s election saddens me.  Without a viable opposition, what will happen to the Democratic Party and their politics?  With such a fractured Republican Party, how long will it take the moderates to splinter off and build themselves into credible contenders?

The death of the GOP is a cause celebre indeed, but at what cost?