Hi duke,
Not if the Republican party has itself become extreme. Which unfortunately, it has.
Happy enough to discuss policies eg expansionary austerity. The latest oxymoron from the right after "the trickle down effect", "supply side economics", "lowering taxes increases revenues", "government is the problem, the market is always right", "greed is good", "caveat emptor and to hell with the responsibilities of suppliers", "the rich are the job creators" and other such bizarre claims that some folks swallow. That's before we begin on things like its stance on science, such as evolutionary theory. And its recent attempts to disenfranchise voting groups it dislikes.
The spectrum of potential policies expands from the far left to the far right. You seem to think the parties straddle the entire virtuous portion of the spectrum and all sensible policies lie between them. Curious why you would think that. We've already discussed one policy (austerity versus stimulus) in which there is no middle ground. I'd argue more stimulus was a good idea. I'm apparently to the left of the administration.
It kinda seems you just want mush to be right, "a little of this and a little of that", without providing specific examples that support your view. Or at least when you do, you rely on simplifications and/or canards such as the poor and unemployed are lazy, and we should be more like our grandparents - whose solution to their problems, I guess I should remind you, was none other than creating the safety net. Republicans may actually have set themselves up in a portion of the spectrum which is intellectually untenable. I happen to think so myself. When thoughtful, committed conservatives like Andrew Sullivan and David Frum cannot stomach the party and people like Sarah Palin and Karl Rove define its policies, you know it has gone over the edge.
I would like to see both the Republican and Democratic party move leftwards. Then they would span the middle and provide the choices I would value (eg between a market based healthcare system and a "socialist" one such as works so well everywhere else).
eg http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/18/defend-capitalism.html
"For 20 years now, the GOP has been giving away the votes of professionals, upper-income non-whites, college-educated women, and other comparatively economically successful groups.
The party has rebased itself on the votes of whites without a college degree."
My view. It has done so by dumbing itself down and promoting a primitive sort of nationalism, religion and economics.
Okay. It can do what it wishes. But it lost its intellectual anchor in the process.
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One of these days I will make the time to challenge some the views over here. I will be honest and say I pop over here once a week and read a post or two and see views that are different than mine. Views that propagate the notion that Republicans are bad and Democrats are good or vice versa are extremist views. There is good and bad in both parties. That being said, we need to work toward balancing the budget and continue to celebrate lawful success. The more every member in society contributes, the better off we all are collectively.