While I agree that both parties are generally in counterpoint (sun and moon) I disagree as to why that is and what it means. At this moment in time the Republican middle is under attack by the conservative right and there is very little evidence of a progressive wing at all as there had been in the past. This suggests a very different reality in effect. The date of ascendancy of the dominant conservative era is not serendipitous--there are reasons beyond shifting ideological preferences within the parties and the nation that account for this. There are reasons why the Phil Gramm's changed parties at that particular time and why ideological purity purged repubicanism of its more moderate wings. The steady advance of civil rights through court decisions and legislation created a nativist movement that is analogous of the current ugliness and irrationality of the present far right. These are not mere waxing and waning of moons, it is the inevitable response of an ideology in decay. It is the reaction to an enlightened era in which the nation choose to follow it ideals and not its fears. The Republican Party was a part of that more enlightened time and contributed to its advances. Let us hope that the demise of far right conservatism that has overtaken the party is at hand. And that its waning climaxes with a whimper and not a bang.