We Need a Center-Right Party

Democrats didn't win this election: Republicans lost it, mostly because of demography. "A coalition of aging white men is a recipe for failure in a nation that increasingly looks like a rainbow," observes Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times. But nobody should cheer the ongoing decline of the Republican Party. "America needs a plausible center-right opposition party to hold Obama's feet to the fire, not just a collection of Tea Party cranks," he writes. We need to hope this loss shocks Republicans into moving to the center.

Unfortunately "many Republican leaders still inhabit a bubble," seduced by a host of extremist right-wing radio and TV shows. Some are already "suggesting that Romney lost because he was too liberal—which constitutes a definition of delusional," Kristof says. Republicans need to change with the country, to become more moderate, and more welcoming to women and minorities. "If the Republican Party remains a purist cohort built around grumpy old white men, it is committing suicide. That’s bad not just for conservatives, but for our entire country." Click for Kristof's full column.