"That the Republicans are still a viable party..."

As he typically does, Thomas Sowell says it better, with fewer words, than I can myself:

That the Republicans are still a viable party is one measure of how far the Democrats' policies and values differ from those of most Americans.

Truly the crux of the biscuit. He elaborates needlessly, but enlighteningly:

Nowhere is that difference greater than when it comes to defending the American people against crime at home and against military and terrorist threats from abroad. Liberal Democrats -- which is to say, most Democratic politicians and all of their leaders -- are ready to try almost any "alternatives to incarceration" of criminals and almost any alternative to maintaining military strength as a deterrent to enemy nations.

More is involved than an unwillingness to face unpleasant facts of life. There is a coherent ideology behind these positions. That ideology goes back more than two centuries -- and has failed in country after country over those centuries. But it is an ideology that sounds good and flatters the vanity of those who consider themselves part of a wise and compassionate elite.

The last bit is a consistent theme with Sowell; he despises elitists, but masks his derision in carefully exercised words (as well he should). A profoundly good book by Sowell on the subject is "The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation As a Basis for Social Policy". It's a seminal modern classic, IMO.