What are some dominant themes in this year's US elections?
Dominant themes identified after watching shows of John Stewart , Bill O Reilly , Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher religiously for past 6 months . Well you can add MSNBC's Rachel Maddow too. Obama Care ( An issue which GOP would be using as an example of extension/intrusion of Government into individual choices and tying it with Gun Control issue as a constitutional breach. Interestingly people in Red (GOP) States are unable to use Obama Care even if they want to as their State Governments haven't created exchanges for people to buy their insurances )Ferguson Incident ( This will certainly polarize voters of color and Latinos to Democrats even without Obama in helm of Democratic campaign. The way it was discussed in FOX News shows the schism in thought process of GOP and how their thinking is far removed from the ground realities ) Immigration ( Immigration as an issue is killing GOP with the sharp change in demographics of Red States. Draconian laws brought about by GOP Arizona Legislators will surely become an issue ) Renewed aggression of terror elements in Iraq and the response of U.S ( Though Hillary Clinton's stance is not much different from Moderate Republicans , GOP will bring in Benghazi issue as an analogy to slander Democrats )Apathy of Veteran Affairs ( It is indeed an issue to be addressed but not sure if GOP and Democrats will touch these topics as both are equally responsible for the mess )With Democrats being easy on LGBT issues , Legalizing Marijuana and being pro-birth control including abortion , I believe millennial generation would feel close to Democrats . With respect to 2016 Elections, the lack of credible opposition to Democrats is astonishing indeed . Last presidential elections had rise of Tea Party which was effective in dethroning Establishment GOP leaders in primaries. But now it is watered down and they lost public opinion after the near 24 hour filibuster brought about by Libertarian elements in GOP .
How did the Republican Party become so extremely right wing?
It has been the result of numerous trends over the past several years. I would argue the most jarring shift has been the Tea Party movement after 2008. In 2008 John McCain was a very moderate nominee, who could be considered downright liberal by today's standards. Mitt Romney was essentially promising Obamacare at the time as well. The 2006 Democratic wave election essentially wiped out liberal Republicans in most of the country from Congress, so it is expected that we would have seen fewer progressive ideas from the GOP since then.The 2008 election was a massive loss for the GOP, but they saw 2010 as the big prize. Prior to that the Tea Party started to protest the large amounts of spending at the start of the Obama administration. The Republican Party also demagogued against the stimulus package, which really agitated the Republican base. Republicans promised to make Obama a one term President, and largely refused to work with him at all. The 2010 election resulted in much more conservative Republicans getting elected. After 2010 Congressional districts were redrawn to favor Republicans, and it is estimated that it may be impossible for Democrats to take back the House until 2030. Now many districts are safe Republican districts, and Republican incumbents no longer face challenges from Democrats, but challenges from more conservative Republicans. Many like Eric Cantor lost their seats to primary challengers, and John Boehner was replaced with Paul Ryan, an ideologue, as Speaker of the House.The trend seems to be moving in the other direction now. The Republican Party has gotten too right wing to appoint serious candidates for the White House. If Republicans wanted to win the easiest answer was to nominate John Kasich. Donald Trump is actually pretty moderate on core economic and social issues, but he holds extreme positions on issues of race, that arguably can be considered racist. While the party may want to move on after the election, there is a decent chance that the party is stuck with the nonsensical policy positions and racist sentiments that Donald Trump has unleashed.