Counterbalance is great. Socialists, Greens, technocrats, trade unionists, small government curmudgeons step right up!
The republicans are a criminal death cult. You would not want MS13 balancing out the cops. Allowing republicans to remain in politics to balance Democrats amounts to exactly the same thing.
The Whigs, No Nothings and Bull-Moose are all gone. Either the republican party or The United States must soon follow. For one to live the other cannot survive.