Republicans, can we please have a heart to heart for a second? I promise I'm not here to gloat, nor am I here to chastise. In fact, quite the opposite. I want to like you again. I really do. You are still relevant, still have plenty of great ideas and still appeal to millions of brilliant, thoughtful people. But those ideas and those people have been lost amidst a maelstrom of vociferous inanity for far too long now.

You have allowed yourselves to be represented by (and let's be honest here, at times elevated) the worst possible elements within your party. Fringe elements that celebrate anti-intellectualism as if it is equal to the earnest travail of accumulating knowledge. Fringe elements that are leery of science, facts and evidence, and care more about what they want to be true than what actually is true. Fringe elements that celebrate and champion the dehumanization of fellow citizens. Fringe elements that think that men know what's best for women and their bodies. Fringe elements that deny the basic humans rights they enjoy to others. Fringe elements that regurgitate platitudes about the greatness of our national experiment yet seem to take perverse pride in alienating the very diverse and minority populations participating in that experiment. Fringe elements that have both a lack of empathy and disdain for the poor and downtrodden and pat themselves on the back for their sterling virtue.

Many of your members see it as their moral and religious duty to carry on championing these antediluvian and retrograde ideals. They look upon human progress and universal betterment and label it wickedness and sin. So be it. They are so entrenched that they are not even aware that a far more dazzling world exists just outside their self-imposed blinders. They will spend their single, infinitely brief existence trying to control the lives of others and perish, thinking they drank fully of life when, in fact, they died of dehydration. For all the Tea Party's bluster about nationwide movements and revolutions, they, their candidates and their ideals were soundly defeated last night. But they needn't drag you down with them.

Should you wish to continue letting these people lead your party, you will continue to see the floor drop out beneath your feet in election after election, as you did last night. Should you wish to continue letting these people lead your party, you will continue to slide toward irrelevance and insignificance as you and your ideals are left behind while humanity advances unencumbered in its forward progress. Or, you can shed these elements, slough them from your once majestic hull like parasitic barnacles and allow yourself to once again run clean and run fast. So long as you insist on doubling down on social issues that divide, rather than unite us, you will, in the words of "Lawrence of Arabia," be "a little people; a silly people; greedy, barbarous, and cruel." I, for one, would love to see you return to form. I firmly believe a democracy works better when opposing but equally thoughtful parties occupy the marketplace of ideas. But right now, you are playing a dangerous game of Russian roulette and you can only pull that trigger so many times before the gun goes off.

Republicans, you would be foolish to avoid the sort of self-examination and soul searching last night's results demand and dismiss it as election stolen by government handouts and media machines in the pockets of leftist activists. Your youngest members know better. They remain under your tent for your often persuasive and compelling fiscal arguments, yet also cannot abide your backward lines in the cultural sand. Do they simply need to let your old guard die off, or are you bold enough to wrest control of your destiny for yourselves, here and now? It is time to stop being on the wrong side of history. You can be relevant again. The choice is yours.

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