Douthat on the GOP

Some of the best commentary on the current death spiral of the Republican Party is coming from conservative writers.  This from Ross Douthat in The New York Times.

The G.O.P.’s problem at the moment is that it’s a congressional party with no clear ability to win presidential-level majorities...But the strategy that the (GOP) populists are currently pursuing — narrowing the definition of True Conservatism to a point where tactics rather than ideology are the only working litmus test, pursuing those tactics even when they put conservatives squarely on the wrong side of public opinion, and then denouncing any alternative approach as a sell-out that justifies bolting for a third party — is likely to deliver one of two alternatives instead: Either a successful populist/Tea Party takeover, à la Goldwater in ’64, that leaves the party in no position to actually contest a national election and secures Obama’s legacy instead, or a backlash that elevates a Republican nominee who runs against Congressional conservatives, à la George W. Bush in 2000, and in the process re-empowers all the interest groups that the populists detest.