GOP Death Spiral?

Given the fact that the GOP is now more or less thoroughly controlled by Christianists and theocrats, I guess we should not be surprised by the results of a new Rasmussen poll that finds that a majority of Republicans believe that the Party is not conservative enough and that the Party needs to be more like Sarah - I can see Russia from my window - Palin. Wow, lobotomies all around! Seriously, the poll results confirm just how out of step with reality and the rest of the country the GOP base has become. They truly live in an alternate universe to the rest of us. A universe where ignorance, religious fanaticism, and intolerance of all who are different are the guiding principles. For the Democrats, all of this is good news - not they seem to fully understand that they have a mandate to effect change now and not when a few Republicans can be convince to join in with them. Here are some highlights from the Rasmussen Reports:

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Coming off a shellacking at the polls in November, the plurality of GOP voters (43%) say their party has been too moderate over the past eight years, and 55% think it should become more like Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in the future, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

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Even right before Election Day, Republicans were happier with Palin, their vice presidential candidate, than with their presidential nominee McCain. Just after losing the election, 69% Republican voters said Palin helped McCain’s bid for the presidency, and nearly two-thirds said she should be the party’s 2012 presidential nominee. Sixty-five percent (65%) of GOP voters had a Very Favorable view of her at that time.

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Younger voters are more likely than their elders to think the GOP has been too conservative during the Bush years, but voters in nearly all age groups are more closely divided on the future direction of the party between McCain and Palin.

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Just 15% of Evangelical Christian voters feel that the Republican Party has been too conservative for the past eight years, while 50% think it has been too moderate. By contrast, pluralities of other Protestant voters (40%) and Catholics (38%) feel the party has gone too far to the right.

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Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Evangelical Christians say the party should become more like Palin. Other Protestant voters are more closely divided, giving Palin just a four-point edge over McCain, while Catholics prefer following McCain by eight points.