Why Republican's Are Losing Credibility with Voters

Yesterday House Republican's, despite their dismal appeal to voting hispanics, decided not to allow immigration reform to happen this year, evidently out of fear of backlash from their base in the coming primary elections.  Of course that wasn't why they said they were not going to act.  Their party line justification was that "they can't trust Obama to enforce the law."

This was a laughable excuse on many levels, but the real irony was that the Economist magazine that just hit the newstands was ripping Obama because he has in fact deported far more people than any President in history.

It has been apparent to those of us in California (particularly former Republican's like me who are somewhat sympathetic to some Republican ideals) that the national Republican party is going down the same path that led the California Republican party to the irrelevancy of having no Republican who holds statewide office, and large Democratic majorities in both house of the legislature (and, embarrassingly - now that Republican's are shut out California's economy is climbing back on its feet).  

There is delicious irony in all this.  Republican's tend toward take no prisoners election tactics.  They have put a high value on gaming the system to gerrymander districts to maximize the value of Republican votes, they worked at suppressing voter turnout, they pounded on gays to exploit peoples prejudice, now they are reaping the harvest.  Everyone but the far right has relaxed about gays, and now Republican districts are so right wing they cannot do what even big business Republicans realize the nation needs without subjecting House members to vicious primary challenges.  We are probably a couple of election cycles from a complete shutout of Republican influence, but Republican irrelevancy is becoming more and more likely all the time as House Republicans publicly contort themselves to please their base.