The Times examines the deterioration of California Republicans, who continue to fade more and more every time when people figure there’s no way they can get worse. Sort of like NBC. Anyway, the reactions in this piece range from credible and informed…

“The institution of the California Republican Party, I would argue, has effectively collapsed,” said Steve Schmidt, a Republican consultant who was a senior adviser to Mr. Schwarzenegger. “It doesn’t do any of the things that a political party should do. It doesn’t register voters. It doesn’t recruit candidates. It doesn’t raise money. The Republican Party in the state institutionally has become a small ideological club that is basically in the business of hunting out heretics.”

…to delusional:

“You can only have 11 percent unemployment for so long before the populace gets tired of the people in power,” said Tom Del Beccaro, the Republican Party chairman. “The Democrats are in a lot of trouble because they’ve had the governorship, the Assembly and the Senate, and the budget is way out of balance; unemployment is third-highest in the nation.”

This is a certain kind of argument that I think overstates a strong principle in politics. Yes, economic performance is key among the fundamentals in politics. But there are others, and if the other party isn’t seen as a credible alternative, turnover might not happen. Mississippi has been the poorest state for decades, and it’s not as though the state has shaken off its conservatism to try something new in reaction to this. Mississippi voters don’t consider mainstream liberalism an alternative for a number of reasons, and similarly, California voters don’t consider the current version of conservatism as a viable alternative.

I actually don’t think the state’s GOP is entirely screwed, they could turn it around, possibly. The problem is that, in order to do it, a little bit of statesmanship would be required. The public dislikes and mistrusts Republicans partly because of their beliefs, but also partly because of their tendency to abuse power. Notably the 2/3 rule on taxes, which Republicans zealously guard and sometimes use to try to force anti-environment and other unpopular-in-California poison pills that wouldn’t otherwise earn consideration. You can’t act like that and then pretend to be a responsible governing party. Californians know full well about all this, and do not want Republicans to govern because they do not trust them. This is especially problematic because California Republicans aren’t interested in governing, basically believe they will never regain power in the state, and cling to the 2/3 rule as their only source of power. Theoretically, Republicans could renounce the 2/3 rule and commit themselves to a socially moderate, fiscally conservative (but not dogmatic) mode of management, and even as a lefty I can easily think of spending that should be cut in the state. That could be, I don’t know, a useful thing to have. Perhaps a few years of constructive contributions to government could revive their image. That’s the statesmanship that would be needed to turn things around, I think. The state’s Democrats aren’t exactly all that popular or impressive, and banding together as a moderate reformist power might or might not be successful, but it’s not like they couldn’t do worse. Until they do.

And then there’s more delusion at the end:

“While there are always woes in California, now is worse than ever,” said Connie Conway, the Assembly minority leader. “Now the majority party in the Legislature has decided that this train to nowhere is a good idea. A lot of people are really questioning that these days. Californians are waking up.”

Putting aside that the Bridge to Nowhere was a Republican initiative to begin with, it’s true that Californians have grown skeptical of high speed rail over the past few years, likely because the costs have nearly doubled and the initial San Francisco-to-Los Angeles route was proven unworkable. But the idea that this would be a major voting issue for a state with much bigger problems–and that a party mostly known for stubborn obstinacy, ideological obsession and fiscal irresponsibility would be in any way positioned to capitalize on it–is insane. But I guess Conway has to say something, she’s one of their high-ranking leaders, and her paymasters would have her deposed if she were to say something like, let’s try to find a middle ground on these budget issues (this has happened before). At this moment there aren’t any strong forces pushing Republicans to change, aside from the slow but inevitable deterioration of their delegation, which I think will drop below 1/3 this year, and if not then, then in not too much time. At that point, the California Republican Party will look an awful lot like the South Carolina Democratic Party. It’ll technically exist, but nobody will spare much time thinking about it.