Can the Republican Party be Saved?

[babylonsister]

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/11/29/can_the_republican_party_be_saved.html


November 29, 2012

Can the Republican Party be Saved?


Mike Murphy: "We Republicans cherish the free market. So now might be the right time to start listening to it. Our party has lost the popular vote in five of the past six presidential elections... It's time for the GOP to face the hard truth, no matter how painful. The Republican brand is dying, many of our strategists are incompetent, and we still design campaigns to prevail in the America of 25 years ago."

"Identifying the problem is easy. The Republican challenge is not about better voter-turnout software; it is about policy. We repel Latinos, the fastest-growing voter group in the country, with our nativist opposition to immigration reform that offers a path to citizenship. We repel younger voters, who are much more secular than their parents, with our opposition to same-sex marriage and our scolding tone on social issues. And we have lost much of our once solid connection to the middle class on kitchen-table economic issues."

[Angry Dragon]

1. I say let it go to the Bowels of Hell where it belongs

[spanone]

2. i hope not.

[LisaLynne]

3. BUt the problem is that ...

fundamentally, that's who they are. They are racists and don't want anymore brown people getting into the country. They don't want women to have any type of equality. They want a narrowly-defined Christian theocracy. They don't want there to be gay people at all. And they want the "middle class" to basically be happy slave workers. So, what exactly are they going to do? They would have to change on a very deep level who they are and if they do that, they're not really the same party or people as they are now.

So, no, the Republican Party as it stands right now can't be saved.

[coalition_unwilling]

8. +1,000,000,000 x 1,000,000,000 - Well put and definitely

needed saying. The 'Rockefeller Wing' of the Rape-public-scum Party is a relic of a bygone era.

IMO, the real political debate in this country should be between elements that support Obama's policies and elements that support Bernie Sanders' policies, with Rape-publi-scum relegated to 'rump' status with 10-15% electoral support.

[BeyondGeography]

4. Some good stuff in the linked column

...Which points to another, often ignored, GOP weakness: Republicans tend to be more competitive in off-year elections, when voter turnout is far lower than in presidential years and the electorate is therefore older, whiter and more Republican. It is possible for the GOP to do well in 2014, especially because so many vulnerable Democratic Senators in GOP-leaning states face re-election. But like the Republican off-year successes of 2010, a few non-presidential-year victories, while welcome, would also provide the GOP with a highly misleading dead-cat bounce. The electorate in 2016 will look much like the electorate this year, albeit even more Hispanic and more challenging for the GOP. And the overall demographic trends that are burying the current Republican coalition will only become stronger with time.

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/28/can-this-party-be-saved/#ixzz2DcfS5gZt

[RepublicansRZombies]

5. Would you believe Limbaugh is trying to save the party?

Limbaugh today "They Won. They Aren't Going to Touch Entitlements. We Lost. "
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021897980#post16

He said Dems would not allow entitlements to be cut, marijuana will be legal everywhere, and gay marriage as well.

He told the Republican party to accept it. Weird.

[MineralMan]

6. Here - I'll throw them this lead non-flotation device.

That's my contribution to saving the GOP.

[RomneyLies]

7. This is what happens to a party when the fringe elements demand ideological purity

It happened to the Federalists.

It's happening to the Republicans.

It can happen to any party that allows a vocal minority to highjack the agenda.

[Auntie Bush]

9. I sure hope not. I pray for it's demise!