Is the GOP on the edge of irrelevance?

Michael Powell, son of Colin, believes so unless the GOP is willing to do some self-criticism. At NewMajority.com, he writes:

I believe the Republican Party is on the precipice of irrelevance if it cannot rebuild a respect for civil debate-including self-criticism. ... The litmus test politics that has abducted the party, has dulled the edge of its ideas, discourages those who respond to intellectual rigor, and repels too many from the party who are unwilling, as a condition of admission, to sign an oath of allegiance to a set of talking points.

He goes on to address the issue of new media, new communications, and how those ideas draw young people raised in a digital revolution. Anyone in the blogging community knows how much the liberals have been ahead of us in technology ... but we are working to catch up.

Then Powell addresses the changing demographics of this country, saying we are a "browning" nation:

The Party also must be more sober about the demographic transformation that is taking place in America. We are a browning nation, but a Party seemingly incompetent in connecting with America’s diversity and its ascendant multiculturalism. We are stuck in antiquated notions of race. My kids saw Barack Obama not as black but as modern. His race and enlightened manner of dealing with it captures how the young see themselves.

He ends by saying politics is not a faith:

While Republicans are a proud party of values, politics is not a faith. It is an instrument for winning the consent of the American people to steer the nation that they love into a future they believe in. It is a sacred responsibility.

Words worth heeding....