In a word, 'No.' Short term, anything can happen, especially if employment problems or another crisis hits next year during the mid-term elections. But in guessing about the long term trend, I think the Republican party is doomed, despite the recent small successes that are being worked over by the spin-meisters.

In the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, the Republicans benefited from the Solid South switching away from the Democrats. The South was ascendant. Everybody was moving to the Sunbelt. The Rust Belt was losing population and electoral votes. This new-found confidence in the South even affected popular culture; recall the southern half rock/half country bands that became popular in the 1970s. Remember the lyric, '...and let Neil Young remember, Southern man don't need him around.'  Bible Christianity went mainstream; traditional protestant denominations lost members faster than the industrial unions up north.

I think this trend has played itself out. Companies moved south to escape high taxes and unions back then. Today they'd just go to China. For awhile, population shifts from the northeast to Florida helped the Republicans, since the yankee immigrants were not yet numerous enough to change the election results, but numerous enough to shift electoral votes south. But they've reached the tipping point by now.

The same thing has happened out West, where California refugees spill over into Clark County, Nevada, Arizona, etc. Eventually all those former cowboy and pickup truck red-states will go blue. Idaho and Wyoming will be the last holdouts.

September 11 was a godsend to the Republicans. When the war drums really begin banging, the country votes for the party of Reagan, not for the party of George McGovern and his pot-smoking, draft-card-burning hippie protesters. The Republicans missed the Cold War since defense issues were advantageous to them. They hoped to make the War on Terror a perpetual war, like the Cold War.

Rapture-Christians were, well, enraptured with the idea of Holy War against Islam. It would be like the Crusades all over again, yippee, except that Catholics had all the fun back then. The pro-Israel neo-cons used these blockheads to further their agenda of building permanent American military installations in the Mideast.

The bad news for the Republicans is that September 11 looks like a one-time thing. People are starting to forget it. The War on Terror has started to wear thin. The endless wars in the Mideast are unpopular.

Long term demographic trends favor the Democrats. Perhaps Mexican immigration has slowed down temporarily because of the housing bust. The main Mexican oil field in the Gulf of Mexico is depleting at an alarming rate. It has long bankrolled the Mexican government. Losing that oil field and an excess population means that they will keep heading north for years to come.

Just imagine how a more government-centered health care system will benefit the Democrats. How much money will medical supply firms be shaken down for if they want the government contract for the hundreds of products consumed by medical offices and hospitals?

Just imagine the increased strength of the Democratic party when every janitor or cafeteria worker in every hospital is required to join the UAW. Or consider a nurse's union that is the equivalent of the teacher's union.

High unemployment will help to grow the Education sector of the economy. Few people will question an increase of spending on manufacturing diplomas for non-existent jobs; the Demos believes that diplomas somehow create good jobs. Today the teachers' union is as big a part of the Democratic party as the AFL-CIO and UAW was in 1950. Long term the Education sector is even more important since it influences the next generation in directions that are good for the Democratic party, especially...

...the Greening of America will continue and help the Democrats, since green subsidies create industries that depend on government. The average suburban sentimentalist/environmentalist works in an office for some service industry. These folks have never seen anything manufactured in their life. They have no idea of where things come from. They are completely separated from physical reality.

In their sector of the economy, if you want something, you just create it out of nothingness by printing it, borrowing it, changing the software, or passing a new law. From their point of view, everything should work like that, including technology, geology, and meteorology. And after all, the new energy taxes and regulations aren't going to hurt them individually; they'll only hurt oil or mining companies. Right.