We Need a Center-Right Party

Democrats didn't win this election: Republicans lost it, mostly because of demography. "A coalition of aging white men is a recipe for failure in a nation that increasingly looks like a rainbow," observes Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times. But nobody should cheer the ongoing decline of the Republican Party. "America needs a plausible center-right opposition party to hold Obama's feet to the fire, not just a collection of Tea Party cranks," he writes. We need to hope this loss shocks Republicans into moving to the center.

Unfortunately "many Republican leaders still inhabit a bubble," seduced by a host of extremist right-wing radio and TV shows. Some are already "suggesting that Romney lost because he was too liberal—which constitutes a definition of delusional," Kristof says. Republicans need to change with the country, to become more moderate, and more welcoming to women and minorities. "If the Republican Party remains a purist cohort built around grumpy old white men, it is committing suicide. That’s bad not just for conservatives, but for our entire country." Click for Kristof's full column. (More Nicholas Kristof stories.)