thread--- A lot of guys like to say things like "the GOP's role is to funnel opposition into a harmless direction" and that is true in a function sense, that's what has happened. But the GOP imo has no actual role in The System. They are on the outside

The GOP has no patronage network within the government. There is no cadre of GOP-aligned bureaucrats within the alphabet soup that a GOP majority could lean on to do things. They can at best hand a bunch of democrats a list of unenforceable requests, predictable results

The GOP has no patronage network within the private sector. There is basically nobody getting a check from the government that can point directly to republicans as the reason for their bag. Other than guns, there is no material reason for most people to ever vote republican

The only patronage network that exists on the right is within the GOP universe. The GOPe controls a few billion in campaign donations and political media revenues. This is all they care about. Controlling the party. They get everything they want from this alone

So why care about ever winning a majority? They couldn't do much with it even if they got it, and they are taking care of their network already without significant access to public money. The democrats want power and the GOP doesn't want it. That's the whole story