Thread by @JoyAnnReid

So here's the question: if you're the GOP, what do you do about the fact that a lot of your base wants to basically nix trade, immigration,

roll back cultural modernity and religious pluralism and to have a protectionist, sclerotic, early 20th century economy?

I mean you can't make them NOT want these things, and they are a big part of your voting base. What do you do?

You know that these ideas would kill the economy. But you also need these people in order to get what YOU want (huge tax cuts for the rich,

broad deregulation of the industries that pay you, etc.) If you're the party leadership, what do you do?

Do you openly rebuke these people and probably lose elections in the short term, especially if a third party springs up to serve them?

Dems dealt with that when the Dixiecrats sprang up in response to what southern white Democrats saw as "softness on race" by FDR & Truman.

And they dealt with it in the notorious "Klanbake" Democratic convention in 1924, which Rachel just discussed: politico.com/magazine/story…

And yes, in 1927, Donald Trump's father was at the scene of a Klan riot in Queens. washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/w…

So now that that man's son is the president, and he embraces this base and is openly encouraging them, what do you do?

In the short term, this rage helps you. It helped you run the table in the Obama era, because he was the physical embodiment of their fears.

It handed you a gerrymandered-guarantee of congressional and state power through the 2020 Census, and got you a surprise White House win.

Do you try to shut these people down and risk driving them away ahead of a combo Census-Presidential year in 2020? Do you take that risk?

Would you if you were the leadership of the GOP?

LBJ stared into a daunting crystal ball in 1964, knowing that long term, he was driving this cohort away, dooming his party with them.

Is there an LBJ-level statesman in the GOP who's willing to do what he did?

Again, the effects took 50 years to materialize, and there were positive effects too (surges in black votes help elect Clinton and Obama).

But it's just a fact that the Democratic Party after LBJ has not won a majority of white voters. Not a single time since 1964.

Democrats DID lose control of the south. It took 50 years for LBJ's prediction to come true, but it did come true.

Democrats, including the Clintons, made ugly attempts to wrestle that base back, and they paid for it (Hillary in particular).

But Republicans have a genuine choice on their hands: keep the short term gain of the Trumpist base, or take the risk of spurning them.

History will record what they do, and that should matter to them. But let's not pretend it's not a risk.