How likely is a moderate Republican revival in the future?
The two major parties in the US tend to be flexible when faced with changing conditions. The worse the GOP does electorally under strongly conservative and/or partisan leadership, the more pressure the party will come under to reorient itself. Most Republicans in Congress and most Republican-oriented pundits are strongly conservative and/or partisan, but that situation does not pose an insurmountable obstacle to a comeback by the moderates. The same was true in the 1930s and ’40s. Moderately conservative Republicans tend to be strongest at the gubernatorial level (and especially among big-state governors). Moderates also are much more prone to recruit a broadly popular candidate who comes from outside the political system, as Eisenhower did in the 1950s. The clearest sign that approach can work even today comes once again from California. Moderately conservative Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger entered politics from outside the system and won two consecutive gubernatorial elections by
