we can debate the actual timing, but i'd say around the early 80's, the republican party started to move from a serious political party to a cult. these days, they have no platform whatsoever. no principles whatsoever.
a few years ago, i came to this conclusion, and not a single person has even tried to argue against it... perhaps the biggest difference between democrats and republicans... democrats, for all their many faults, want to make this place better for everybody. agree or disagree with their policies, and i disagree with plenty of them, at least they truly want to make the world better for everyone. republicans only care about people who look and/or think like they do. everything else scares them. while dems try to move us forward, the gop wants to move backwards.
i don't have much hope for the future of this country, but one of the few encouraging things is that the last time a republican actually won the popular vote for president was W in 2004. overall, this country realizes the dems' policies are better.
sadly, 99.9% of republicans don't understand they are consistently voting against their own best interests. my favorite example is the union shop i worked in. obviously the republicans are very anti-union. and yet the majority of the guys on that shop floor voted republican. so insanely stupid. but they just keep voting for that "R" because that's what their daddy did, and his daddy before him. it's no coincidence that none of them read a newspaper or get their news from anywhere other than faux or facebook.
I look forward to the Hedgehog and Cricket response.