I am happy to report that the community of people checking out the website and reading the weekly links is growing nicely, as are the number of people following the Facebook page. With apologies to those of you who are reading comprehensively, starting with next week’s post I am going to begin to re-post some of the earlier posts, as well as continue to post new material. (Still just one post a week, as promised.) There are a lot of newer followers who haven’t seen the earlier posts. I think it’s important that they do, both to help them understand what Liberal Republican politics might look like and to provide some background on the history of Liberal Republicanism. (In that regard, if you haven’t already done so, please also read “Fixing Our Broken Politics” on the website’s homepage.)

This week’s link is again to the Bibliography With Commentary section of the website. It is‎ to the description of Lewis Gould’s book Grand Old Party: A History of the Republicans. This week’s post and link are intended to address the concerns and frustrations of many people–self-identifying Republicans, Democrats and Independents–that the present political makeup of the Republican Party is permanent. The press is full of articles assuming so. There are articles about the need for a third party, and the imminent implosion of the Republican Party (from Conservatives as well as Progressives), and other doom and gloom political scenarios.

Maybe that is America’s future. But it’s important to understand that so far that is not what has happened historically in America. Rather, both the Republican and Democratic parties have repeatedly adapted, becoming more and less conservative over time, and shifting their positions on a wide variety of issues. I believe that there is every reason to expect that this will continue to be the case, and it is a primary goal of this website to put that idea in people’s heads. The short description of Gould’s wonderful book linked hereprovides some historic foundation for this belief, and the book itself provides much, much more. ‎

As always, please share the website and link with people who you think might be interested. And have a good weekend.