Is the Republican Party going to be able to contend for power in the coming years?

Is the Republican Party going to keep doing what it is doing, or make a shift?

Will the Republican Party continue what it is doing and manage to get back into power that way?

Will the Republican Party continue what it is doing and marginalize itself perpetually?

Why is the Republican Party working so hard to appeal to the base even at the cost of turning off the middle?

Might the Republican Party go the way of the Whigs and a new conservative party be born (for the first time in more than 150 years)?

Will the Republican Party get back into power by changing into something more appealing to the American center and less geared to the base?

If the Republican Party moves back toward the sane middle --appealing to the kind of conservative suburban voters they used to get but have now turned off, toward something more like the Republican Party of Gerald Ford and Dwight Eisenhower-- would the Republican base (the Party of Limbaugh and the like) follow them?

How do you understand the forces at work that will determine the future of the Republican Party.