The only issue that this article doesn't address is HOW the GOP can reconcile itself to the welfare state when it ideological denies many of the problems that it is set up to fix.
The biggest issues facing our nation and world in the future are climate change and wealth inequality, and there is no policy that a single leader in the GOP has put forth to address these problems.
I think that there is a real chance that the GOP collapses in this century and the Libertarians replace them because they haven't even acknowledged the problems that we need to be finding solutions for right now. The people will need someone to blame as they worsen and we all know it won't be the Democrats...
I think it is pretty clear that the solution the GOP has adopted and will adopt is to adopt an apartheid welfare state. Social security benefits for old whites, but no welfare for young Mexicans that are unemployed because of Obama and because we have not yet elected Donald Trump to put them productively to work.
There is a need for someone to blame as conditions worsen, but the blamee is baked in to this solution - Mexicans can be blamed for all America's problems. As Asian population growth picks up over the rest of the century, you will increasingly see Chinese being blamed as well.
