The Shrinking Republican Party

Since the 2010 election, unions have been under a steady attack by the far right leaning, newly elected governors and state representatives. It has turned out to be the best thing to happen to labor in decades.

The Tea Party supported GOP have drawn a stark contrast to the middle of the road Republicans.  Within their first 120 days, with a laser focus on unions, they have worked to diminish worker's rights and cut their benefits and also cut funding for education while handing out millions in tax cuts to corporations.

The consequence has been these middle of the road conservatives are now switching parties in growing numbers. Garrett Lamp, a lifelong Republican from Florida, recently told the Huffington Post,

As a public safety employee, as a fireman, as a father of three children and my sister has a special needs child, I'm fed up with the ridiculous cuts that are being made right and left. It's almost like the Republicans are in a feeding frenzy, decimating working-class families. You can't do away with taxes for corporations and put it on the backs of middle-class working people, and that's what they're doing.

If you're the CEO of a large company, you should help the people who helped you become the CEO of a successful company, saying closing loopholes for CEOs shouldn't be a partisan issue. How many millions and billions do people need to make, while the standard of living and the average income for the hardworking men and women who put their company in that position is dropping every day?

By the GOP blaming the public sector unions on the fiscal crisis and our current economic problems, they are having the unintentional effect of driving away the Reagan Democrats that moved to their party over the previous decades. They are increasingly becoming a party for the wealthy white and evangelical Christians, which will undoubtedly shrink their size.