DISINTEGRATING GOP

Daniel McCarthy at The American Conservative magazine wrote an interesting article this week that goes a long way in ringing the alarm bell for today’s GOP.

He asks the question, “Is the GOP Still a National Party?” And, pretty much answers, “No.” His take is that the GOP has become a regional party, beholden to their right-wing base and less and less able to run a national campaign that appeals to the country as a whole.

We were really excited to stumble across this article, as we’d already begun to talk among ourselves about the rightward turn of the GOP, and how that is making their message harder to sell in a national election.

The GOP civil war has begun. When the party took in the Tea Party in order to win elections in the short term, they took in the right-wingers who will destroy the party in the long run.

The Tea Party represents about 22% of the American voters — not a big enough group of voters to win elections on their own, but it is a sizable group that has helped the GOP to win elections — most recently in the 2010 congressional elections. That win was accomplished with a basic lie: Obamacare has “Death Panels” and it was won with right-wing populism that stirred anger over the bank bailouts. And, it was won because Obama voters didn’t show up at the polls.

But, the GOP took the wrong lesson from that election. They thought that their big win meant that the country had turned to their right-wing policies. They went too far and over-reached with their agenda.

Right now so many Republicans are blaming Mitt Romney for where this presidential election currently stands. We think that in addition to Romney being an awkward, unlikable person, he is also saddled with the voter’s dislike of today’s GOP and the belief that it no longer shares values with the American people since it adopted Tea Party rhetoric.

The GOP brand of Ronald Reagan was sunny and forward looking … that’s the American people! Today’s GOP, with its Tea Party values, has become negative; hateful; mean; backward looking; blame-placers, disrespectful of women and gays; racially bigoted; and even seen as threatening when they show up at political rallies packin’ heat!

And, their bigotry appears to be a badge of honor to many in the GOP! It is stunning to watch Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown’s staff laughing and smiling — in a boastful and self-congratulatory manner — as they mock Brown’s opponent, Elizabeth Warren, for her Native American heritage. They are caught on video yelling Native American war-whoops, all the while executing tomahawk chops.

This is no longer the pary of Ronald Reagan. We believe Reagan would call these people out for their behavior. Today’s GOP leaders need to take a stand against the extremists that are now taking control of the party.

If they don’t, then the predictions of Daniel McCarthy, in his article in The American Conservative, will be proven right.