COMMENTARY-- For almost two years now I have been discussing the Republican identity crisis that has afforded Democrats more gains than they might have otherwise earned.
Despite the fact that winning elections is about addition, Republican purists have been on a six-year run glorifying subtraction.
While cultural issues like abortion and gay marriage are crucial to a vital part of their coalition, they have also pushed away young voters, particularly young white males.
Neither party can hold a majority without growing their Hispanic vote. Yet the screamers on talk radio along with Lou Dobbs types have turned concerns about illegal immigration into a broad brush of anti-Latino sentiment. Illegal immigration is still the number one issue among Texas Republican primary voters.
The screamers have marginalized the party. Whether it was the seven percent of former Republicans who told national exit pollsters they had become independents voting for Obama or the nine percent drop in Republican voters at the top of the Texas ticket last year.
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Party Shift
After six years of election set backs, Republicans may be turning it around. News 8s Harvey Kronberg explains why he sees hope on the horizon for the GOP.
 
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I suspect that defections of Republican moderates are directly correlated to the silliness of the screamers. Obama as a Kenyan, as a Muslim, as communist who hates white people is so silly as a political posture that the mere repetition has been a boost to Democrats.
Democrats have been perfectly happy to cast themselves as the welcoming, reasonable center.
But the ground underneath them may be shifting. One-party government creates its own peril.
House Democratic leadership has forgotten that the size of their majority depends on freshman members who come from districts George Bush won in 2004. Improvements in the economy are significant, but with each passing day, joblessness and recession become a Democratic story.
But just as importantly, some serious Republicans have finally come out of the fetal position. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham called them crazy and said Glenn Beck should be ignored. This week, conservative columnist David Brooks said elected officials should stop being stampeded by talk radio charlatans. Brooks said elected officials too often confuse listeners with voters.
A recent Gallup poll suggested that for the first time in years, some self-identified independent voters are once again breaking Republican. Democrats are still dominating this all important block of voters, but by declining margins.
The sooner more voices on the rational right join with Lindsey Graham and David Brooks, the faster the GOP will return to the robust party it once was.
