Republicans are down and they can't get up. Ever.

I hear you out there with your Bob Dole or John McCain Viagra jokes, but this is serious. The Republican party is about to get whupped out of existence and it isn't just a cyclical balancing of political power. Our society has out grown the ability to work with a top-down, single source of power and knowledge.

Republican and Democratic principles and their expression can be thought of as the meeting of both form and function. The Republican form is authoritarian, top down, with an all-powerful leader. Power and money flow down from the top just as Ron Reagan's trickle-down theory proposed. In a Republican society the rich are meant to be rich and to stay rich. The poor, well, who cares about them as long as they keep the pool clean. The Democratic form is, well, democratic with power coming from the people. No one is supposed to be poor, but all have a level playing field with opportunities to become rich with the exercise of talent, a little luck and lots of hard work. In a Republican society, it's every man for himself. In a Democratic society, it's people working together to make a better world for everyone.

The Republican form has many advantages with respect to execution [no pun intended]. No consensus is needed or desired. Decisions can be made quickly and orders carried out immediately. We've all seen the Republican machine generate a talking point that is hammered incessantly by all of its little cogs. We've all seen the Republicans march in lock-step towards their goals. Democrats take so much longer to ponder the points in question and individually decide what is best. No lock stepping for Dems.

Republicans have pushed their advantages with tools that work well with authoritarianism: propaganda, phony elections, fear, cronyism, and brutal force. The traditional media along with Rush Limbaugh talking heads pushed Republican think tank memes brilliantly. The Supreme Court delivered the White House to the Republicans after intimidation, butterfly ballots, and hanging chads did not. 9/11 provided the perfect instrument to beat a reluctant citizenry or politician into submission. Jack Abramoff and Iraqi contractors exposed the cronyism that infected every single department of the Bush government. Bush threw out the Geneva Conventions and tortured people at will. Bush even arrested an American citizen on American soil and held him as an enemy combatant with no rights in a military prison.

But still, Republicans required a compliant majority of American people. The Republican PR machine achieved support through tactics designed to bring out the worst in us as human beings. Patriotism now means divisiveness, war mongering and unearned pride. 'My country right or wrong' led us to 'wrong'. Republican authoritarianism made a great marriage with fundamental religious exploitation. Americans were now conservative, Republican and Christian. Instead of actual 'personal responsibility', we now had a specific identity. You're either with us or against us. If you're an American, you believe the way the PR machine says you should. Belief trumps science. Wedges make a great campaign rallying tool and an even better police state tool. Identity, not thought, is paramount.

It is no accident that Republicans started calling the president 'the commander in chief' morphing to 'our commander in chief'. The not so subtle meaning is that power flows down from an imperial president to the citizens. I've heard some say that the airport screenings, as useless and annoying as they are, were meant to get us ready to obey police figures without thinking. I don't know that, but I do know that Republicans are big on PR and not at all big on solving real problems. Airport screenings fit that scenario, too. Some say that the ICE raids are preview to a police state as well. Or, maybe, we're very, very close.

With all guns firing for the Republicans, how can I say it's over for them now? Because reality has finally overcome PR. Pain is plain. Bush in his flight suit declaring 'Mission Accomplished' didn't end the war in Iraq and nor did it make Bush a genuine war hero.

To be sure, pain is cyclical and mistakes can be made. But, this time is different. Every major woe can be traced back to the colossal failure of Republicanism. The president acts like our monarch. Money and power is concentrating in few hands. Real problems are ignored or incompetently addressed. Republicanism as currently expressed, will never work.

Talking heads don't own the 'facts' anymore. Communication and information flow has reached the tipping point to the Democratic way. Working American infrastructure has broken through neglect, incompetence and greed. Levees fail. Bridges collapse. Banks fail. Loans are foreclosed. Healthcare is unaffordable. Higher education is unattainable. Reality, when faced, provides a sharp contrast to Bush world.

But, there is an even more fundamental reason why Republicanism cannot succeed: No one person is capable of addressing all of the issues that face the world today. Yet, Republicanism requires it. Bush's gut has failed us despite the PR telling us Bush is God's anointed one on earth. Today's world needs diversity of thought and talents with cooperation across divisions. Diversity and cooperation are hallmarks of the Democratic structure. The first Republican, Abraham Lincoln, recognized the need for other voices. Lincoln had his 'Team of Rivals'.

Many books have been written about Abraham Lincoln, but in Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin zeroes in on the his ability to bring disparate groups and men into his presidency and use their talents to hold the country together.

Today's Republican Party asks us to trust the leader, i.e. George Bush today and John McCain tomorrow. No wonder the Republican party is dead.