Where are things headed? US Politics

It may be (unless a leader of unexpected stature and skill shows up soon) that the GOP will go the way of the Federalist Party in the near future. They'll do decently in the midterm elections of 2014, when only the hardcores show up to vote anyway. BUT they could splinter so badly in the run-up to 2016 as to give Hillary Clinton a cakewalk. And if that happens, the splintering will worsen until there is no opposition party to speak of, just as there was not when the Federalists fell apart.

The feelings in the so-called "Era of Good Feelings" weren't especially good, though.

One has to hope that Democratic Party dominance won't last and will have the consequence (as it eventually did in that context) of a splintering within their own ranks. The Whig Party came about because through the course of Monroe's 8 years large chunks of the Democratic Party decided they couldn't abide the consequences of their triumph, and they walked.

So ... Hillary wins as the Republican Party falls apart, then the Democratic Party splits in two over the course of an 8-year Hillary administration, and the remnants of the Republicans sign up with the more market-friendly of those two halves.

By the time all that has happened, the top of the calendar says 2024, and the USA is a very very different country.

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