George Will went nuclear last Friday. Paul Mirengoff pointed out on Sunday that such may be a bit overwrought. This morning Jim Geraghty declared the current GOP front runner as bad as Hillary. All the while, Hugh spins his fictional tale of the convention to the rescue. I, on the other hand, have no idea what the remaining primaries and the convention hold in store. I grew up in Indiana and have lived for the last thirty plus years in California – I should have a better perspective than most on the next few weeks, but I’m clueless.

What I do know is that regardless of what the next few months bring to us, the Republican party will never be the same, if it survives. And frankly, the future of the party is the question that drives me as I struggle with what to do when my turn comes June 7. In all these thirty plus years I have lived in California, my presidential primary vote has never mattered. In the last decade or so, my Republican vote has not really mattered either. Politically, California may be proving itself a bell weather as it has in so many other things. I worry that national GOP seems on course to follow the California GOP into irrelevancy.

Political parties have died before and in at least one instance what came from the ashes produced the very best American history has to offer. But it is a different age and I cannot see to the other side of this mess. I wish I had some answers, but I don’t But this I do know – The GOP will not survive if we do not try, if we do not work at it.

Those that are calling for the destruction of the GOP are not offering me a vision for what comes after. My neighborhood is littered with vacant lots where developers acquired the property, completed the demolition, and have run out of funding to do the construction. In some cases years have passed before actual construction begins. Often the property changes hands before the construction begins. In the interim, the land grows weeds and save for the valiant efforts of law enforcement, gathers indigents.

I am disinclined to look favorably upon the demolition of the GOP unless those calling for it can demonstrate a plan for, and the resources to see the plan through, what comes after. The alternative is a nation where the conservative has no home. The current GOP is a mess. (The Dems are not that far behind, but they are not my problem.) Yes, I want it better, but show me better. I am not prepared to live on the streets while we figure it out.