You would expect that a political party that recently won a majority in the U.S. Senate, gained strength in the House, captured 31 of 50 governorships and gave 24 of those governors majorities in their legislatures would be basking in predictions of future success. But rather than luxuriating in the warm glow of bright prospects, the Republican Party is, in the eyes of some experts, on track for extinction.

The reasons center on demographic forecasts showing groups likely to vote for the GOP in steep decline and Democratic-oriented voters surging. But such “in the long run” predictions resemble those fanciful 1930s prophecies that by 1970, we would be all be commuting by autogiro and living in geodesic domes.

After the 2014 elections, pundits wasted no time in proclaiming the Republican triumph an iridescent dream bound to evaporate in the face of growth in the number of Democrats and a corresponding crash in older white Americans who identify with the GOP.

Read the article “ANALYSIS: GOP Considerably Stronger Than Media Suggests” on usatoday.com.