I believe that Leonard Pitts has it 100% backwards in his column, "The Republican Party has clearly lost its way," about which party has lost its way. 

The Democrats' major issue on the Supreme Court is clearly abortion on demand.  Few countries in the world allow late-term abortion, but Democrats demand 100% adherence to that view.  Planned Parenthood continues to abort black babies at a much higher level than their percentage of the population.

In the 1930s, both parties were responsible for the Davis-Bacon law, which was put on the books to prevent minority workers from taking white workers' jobs.  Sadly, it is the Democrats who continue to support prevailing wage laws that have oppressed minorities and taxpayers for over eighty years.

In the 1960s, the Great society and  anti-poverty programs were passed that greatly encouraged the breakup of families.  Instead of lifting people out of poverty, the programs encouraged single parenthood, relegating so many (disproportionally black) families to dependence on government.  The number of kids born out of wedlock today is an embarrassment.  Dual-parent families along with capitalism are great ways to lift people up.  Dependence on government is not.

The 1996 version of Bill Clinton sounded tougher on immigration than Trump does today.  The Democrats and media cheered instead of calling him a racist and a xenophobe.  Now they support lawless sanctuary cities and states.

After years of neglect, this administration has taken a strong stand to stiffen the protection of our borders.  We are increasing border controls by 50 percent.  We are increasing inspections to prevent the hiring of illegal immigrants [sic].  And tonight, I announce I will sign an executive order to deny federal contracts to businesses that hire illegal immigrants [sic].

The Democrats for decades have supported the Clintons as they physically and mentally abused women.  The media also supported the Clintons over the women as they sought to destroy anyone who got in their way.  The media, Hollywood, and other Democrats even supported the Clintons in 2016 and absolutely ignored the women they abused.

The Democrats supported President Obama as he sought to silence political opponents through the IRS.  Free speech is meaningless to Democrats.  Senator Durbin even wrote a letter to the IRS encouraging the targeting of conservative groups.

In an Oct. 12, 2010, letter to then-IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman – we have Durbin's press release, including his letter – the senator urged an investigation of "several 501(c)(4) organizations that appear to be in violation of the law." But Durbin's letter only cited one group by name: Crossroads GPS, a conservative group that has spent heavily on advertising to promote fiscal responsibility, limits to government regulation and national security. 

The Democratic Party has devolved so far that people are now guilty until they prove themselves innocent instead of innocent until proven guilty.  That is clearly a party that lost its way.

It is the media and other Democrats who are responsible for ginning up hate and violence as they run unverified or false stories, including "hands up, don't shoot"; false rape stories at Duke and the University of Virginia; and these stories about Kavanaugh.  Susan Collins needs more security and is getting threats because the media ran endless stories trashing Kavanaugh with no proof.

The Democrats clearly support policies that make government more powerful and make more people dependent on government.  They didn't mind manufacturing jobs leaving for good.  They support policies that gave us the slowest economic recovery in 70 years instead of Trump's policies that have goosed the economy and brought unemployment for all races, both sexes, and all education levels to near record lows.

We have been hearing about the blue wave for a long time and that Republicans need to change their ways or they will never win again.  As we have seen these endless talking points, Republicans have taken over 1,000 seats nationwide since 2010.