Republican Rep: 'The GOP Coalition Constitutes A Shrinking Portion Of The Electorate'

[DonViejo]

Source: TPM

TOM KLUDT – NOVEMBER 18, 2013, 6:58 AM EST

The Republican Party is at serious risk of running out of Republican voters, according to a senior GOP lawmaker.

“Republicans need to understand that their political problems are neither tactical nor transitory,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) said, as quoted by the Washington Post. “They are structural and demographic. The hard truth is the GOP coalition constitutes a shrinking portion of the electorate. To change that daunting reality, Republicans must appeal to groups that are currently outside their ranks or risk becoming a permanent minority.”

A former pollster, Cole is known to speak candidly about the political problems facing the GOP. He broke with his party late last year when he said that Republicans should accept President Barack Obama's offer to extend middle income tax cuts in the near-term. Cole also said that Republicans would be damaged politically by the recent government shutdown.

###

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/republican-rep-the-gop-coalition-constitutes-a-shrinking-portion-of-the-electorate

[DeSwiss]

1. GOP, here's your sign:

- K&R

[AlbertCat]

15. What about the Repugs in....

AK
KS
ND
SD
AZ
WI
MI
NJ..... etc etc?

[starroute]

18. There has been a southernization of conservatives in the North

I don't know how far it goes, but it's pretty apparent that the culture of pickup trucks and country music has made deep inroads into the white working class in the North -- and particularly into the Tea Party.

http://bloggingblue.com/2013/07/ohio-tea-party-leader-unfurls-confederate-flag-during-school-board-meeting/

In Springboro, Ohio, the school system decided to cancel two U.S. Constitution summer courses earlier this month after those courses became embroiled in controversy. The courses, provided by the Institute on the Constitution and the National Center for Constitutional Studies, came under criticism as being “Tea Party leaning” and religiously oriented. On Thursday night Sonny Thomas, the president and founder of the Springboro Tea Party, unfurled a a Confederate flag at a school board meeting after giving a speech meant to defend the Constitution classes.

[Myrina]

21. I'm starting to think that is the TP's only 'purpose' ...

... to just complain and raise hell and make everyone and everything so impossible that the rest of the country is basically paralyzed into doing absolutely NOTHING, so as to keep them from causing a ruckus.

[upaloopa]

26. Well having grown up in Ohio you are not

knowledgeable about the "North".
We always had pick up trucks and country music.
Almost all my dad's co workers were Dems and many played guitar and drove old trucks. Some were in the Grand Ole Ophy and on Mid Western Hay Ride with Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton before the boob job.
That was in the 50's and early 60's.

Brought to you by "Breeze" detergent with a glass or towel inside.
Dolly use to say, "you can't buy em, you can only get them free in a box of Breeze."
On edit: How old are you?

[WCGreen]

55. I remember that very well...

[PassingFancy]

66. Was Born And Raised In Ohio

I was born in 1953 in Ohio and lived there all but 4 years until 1980. I can guarantee that there were always pickup trucks, country music, and lots and lots of Democrats back in those days.

BTW - upaloopa - I so remember Mid Western Hay Ride with Porter and Dolly.

I want to know what happened to Ohio becoming a red state when it was almost all Democratic when I was growing up. The last time I was in Ohio was 1999 when clearing up my mom's estate after her death in 1998 and I was shocked at the changes in the political climate even then. And, from what I gather, these days it's become a tea party haven (I may be wrong, but from everything I've read on various sites online, it seems that way).

[upaloopa]

67. What happened was people who owned land in the South were forced off their

land by raising property taxes. They moved North bringing their conservative fundy lifestyles with them. Factories closed and non skilled labor found it harder and harder to make ends meet.
They turned to their faith for answers and began to blame left leaning people for their troubles.
They were ripe for the messages that convinced them to go against their best interests.

[Arugula Latte]

45. I hate the spread of country music.

Whenever I'm in a store and I hear it come on I mutter to myself, "oughta be illegal ..."

[eridani]

53. Molly Ivins begs to differ

http://web.archive.org/web/20080306071615/http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2007/02/MJ_1991_Sept_Ivins.pdf

Well, by George, as a First Amendment absolutist, you'll find me willing to spring to the defense of Camille Paglia's right to be a feminist Rolling Stones fan any hour, day or night. Come to think of it,who the hell was the Stalin who wouldn't let her do that? I went back and researched the '69 politburo,and all I could find was Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug, and Gloria Steinem, none of whom ever seems to have corne out against rock music.

I have myself quite cheerfully been both a country-music fan and a feminist for years­--if Camille Paglia is the cosmos, so am I. When some fellow feminist doesn't like my music (How could you not like "You are just another sticky wheel on the grocery cart of life"?), I have always felt free to say, in my politically correct feminist fashion, "Fuck off."

Or "Drop kick me Jesus, through the goalposts of life"? Or "I'm going to hire a barkeep to redecorate our home"?

[Arugula Latte]

59. I know a lot of people like it.

And, yeah, 1st amendment and all that...

But I had to listen to it when I was growing up, and when I hear the start of a "twang" song, I can't get away from it fast enough.

[stopwastingmymoney]

61. God I loved Molly

The two voices I miss are Molly and George Carlin, imagine what they'd say about the Tea Party! And so many other things...

Thank you for posting that link. I'm saving it to read later.

[jmowreader]

48. Ain't that the damn truth!

There are several houses within a mile and a half of my house that have "The South Will Rise Again" stickers, window displays, etc. All of them have those exact words somewhere in the display.

This is Idaho. Which is, last I checked, very far from the South.

[AlbertCat]

50. There has been a southernization of conservatives in the North

Oh brother.... that's the stupidest thing I've read all year!!!!


You are aware that they've had pick up trucks up north since there have been pick up trucks, right?

Country music comes from the West. Nashville wasn't "music city" till the 1940's. And country's roots before that are from Appalachia... which goes up to Maine, y'know.


See if you can keep your prejudiced stereotypes in check. How is your statement different from me saying something like: "There's been a Jewification of the South with all those Yankees retiring down here!"

Jesus!

[caseymoz]

57. The borders aren't perfect demarcations of ideology.

You can't draw a border around it. Indiana has/had the doughfaces. Missouri is still so divided between North and South views of race. The guerrilla fighting between factions of Union and Confederacy had no border you could draw. Same with "bleeding Kansas."

In my own city, racism is rife on the South side of town were some people would happily fly a confederate flag, though the city was firmly in the Union. The White Persons Defense League popped up in a lot of far Northern cities in the early 20th century to stop desegregation as Blacks migrated from the South.

Republicans appeal to racism everywhere in the country, and nothing expresses a willingness to wreck the country for racism like the Confederate flag. Also nothing represents all the bullshit denials and rationalizations for racism like it either.

Unfortunately, it will always be tied to the South even though it's sentiments are nationwide.

[AlbertCat]

58. Unfortunately, it will always be tied to the South even though it's sentiments are nationwide.

It won't if people will LEARN one of the hugest lessons of the Obama election:

Bigots are everywhere in this country and the South can no longer be "the culprit" while the rest of the smug country thinks they are oh-so-righteous.

[caseymoz]

62. Well, but the South votes red.

And Repubs pander to racism, especially there, to an eye-popping degree, which is why they're in so much demographic trouble as Euro-white Americans decline in percentage of populations.

I'm sorry, a disproportionate number of the racists seem to be in the South, either that or they're voting in disproportionate numbers, which still says something.

And no, the South will never live down Slavery and the Confederacy, no more than the Germans will never live down you know who even though Neo-Nazis are found in scores of nations.

Also, most states in the South don't seem to want to live it down and flaunt the ol' Stars and Bars and try to rationalize that it really wasn't Slavery that made States' rights so urgent.

Sorry, by their own embrace and denial, the South still owns the Confederate Flag.

[AlbertCat]

63. the South will never live down Slavery and the Confederacy,

Bigotry is not the same as slavery.

And blacks are not the only victims of bigotry. The North still owns wage-slavery and the way they treated immigrants. The west coast still owns the way it treated asians. And the center of the country (as well as the rest of it) still own its treatment of Native Americans.



It's attitudes like your post that help to keep it alive. Just as much as "the South shall rise again" baloney.


"a disproportionate number of the racists seem to be in the South"

Not from where I'm standing. The most prejudice place I've ever been is PA. And I don't see the West, Heartland or even New England embracing all races and creeds willy nilly. This is not the 20th century anymore, y'know. The problem these days seems more rural vs metro than regions of the country.

[caseymoz]

65. I guess you have surveys from PA to prove this?

Did you always have the best vantage point to observe it, as an impartial observer, not as someone trying to shift blame from the South?

Nixon didn't have a "Pennsylvania strategy." He had a Southern strategy, and he knew exactly what it would appeal to. And for Republicans, it worked.

It worked for George W. Bush when rumors arouse in the South Carolina primary that John McCain had fathered an out-of-wedlock black child. I can't see that swaying an election in Pennsylvania, or New England for that matter. Now, whether people just don't let their racism go that far in those areas, I don't know.

All places in the US have racism, but the South owns Confederate flag, a simultaneous symbol of racism and its denial.

"This is not the 20th Century anymore."

Yes, it's also no longer noon. What does that have to do with anything?

[Bandit]

30. Racist authoritarians are found in every state.

It is the Party that wants a different form of Government. They do not like Majority rule. They only like Republican rule so that flag fits them no matter what state they live in.

[PeoViejo]

2. The crazies won't listen

because their 'God' is on their side,


Those who do not learn from History.....

[Xipe Totec]

10. At first glance is looks like it says Got Mittens?

As in Mitt Romney.

[freshwest]

17. Mittens and the GOP definitely believed 'God' was 'with them.'

And the GOP claimed that Obama is the anti-christ all the way back to 2008. And Democrats are Demon-rats.

Which fit the Nazis saying Jews=Rats. The GOP are not a case of failing to learn from history and repeating it by accident.

They are a case of learning very well from history and deliberately repeating it, just as they saw Orwell's 1984 not as a warning, but a guidebook.

JMHO.

[albino65]

19. Not Obama

Everyone knows that Rupert Murdoch is the anti-christ!

[PeoViejo]

24. Their 'God' wont save them this time, either.

They would be better-off worshiping the Flying Spaghetti Monster. At least they would get some good meals out of it.

Ramen

[calimary]

37. Welcome PeoViejo, AND albino65! Both of youse!

Glad you're both here!

The whole idea fills me with delight! Wouldn't that be the sweetest justice? Those who relentlessly followed grover norquist's stated goal of trying to shrink the government so small it could be drowned in a bathtub - now find their entire nauseating political party set up for the same fate!

SWEET, SWEET, delicious tasty justice!!!!

This is one case in which I'm all for the whole idea of "creative destruction." Let it rain down upon the GOP and all its hydra-headed heads! I hope that God-forsaken party dies, and its members are scattered throughout the wilderness like the builders of Babel were. I hope they're out of commission (and certainly out of power) for at least a generation or two - until our side has time to fix a few things and rehabilitate the Supreme Court.

They don't get it. It's not ANY of the ways in which they present or massage or communicate or focus-group test their ideas that alienate voters. It's THE IDEAS THEMSELVES that alienate voters.

[PeoViejo]

46. Thank You, and I agree

Off to the Wilderness
oh dread GOP
a few generations
to ponder your fate
To Hell with your spawn
begone with your Hate.

[Myrina]

22. "Got mittens" ? Cuz it does get cold in Deutschland ...

[PeoViejo]

25. Even colder on the Eastern Front

Better take the Old Lady's Mink Coat, too.

[zbdent]

13. Their mantra sounds eerily like

"Arbeit macht frei"

[Jackpine Radical]

16. My version is

Arbeit macht müde.

Work makes you tired.

[eridani]

54. Or "Arbeit macht verruckte"? n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

56. Ja, das auch.

Ganz verrückte. Das ist, was mir gechehen ist.

[WinstonSmith4740]

29. Did you happen to catch "The Longest Day" on TV?

It was on last week for Veteran's Day, I think on Turner Classic. There's a scene where one of the German general's says (I'm paraphrasing) "I wonder sometime who's side God is on". And therein lies the problem. Crazy people always think they speak for God, they are chosen to lead (see Ted Cruz's father), and that they and they alone have the answers.

I've always felt there was a special place in hell for those folks.

[PeoViejo]

32. I watched it years ago

..but it does beg the question: How many people have died in the name of God, for no reason but that some crazies declared it to be so?

[WinstonSmith4740]

35. One of Dylan's all time best...

Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side

I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side

In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side

So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war

[NYtoBush-Drop Dead]

43. WOW!!!

The Ring says... Got Mittens...
Like Got Milk and RMoney!!

[dynasaw]

3. They only now realize this?

[Xipe Totec]

11. It's a stupiphany

When something that was obvious to everyone else finally becomes clear to you as well.

[Myrina]

23. I LIKE that term!!

[Arugula Latte]

33. They're finally un-derp-standing how things are.

[Xipe Totec]

42. LOL! Nice! nt

[JoePhilly]

4. That's why they are trying to depress the vote.

Its why they are creating all kinds of voting rules.

Its why they are so heavily focused on Gerrymandering.

And its why the media likes to tries to get Americans to hate the government.

All of these manipulate who can vote, who actually votes, and where they vote.

[mac56]

5. Yup. They realize they can't win a fair fight

so they have to job the rules.

[nxylas]

6. Pretty soon, there will only be 500 GOP voters left

Fortunately for the GOP, they'll each have their own congressional district.

[Arugula Latte]

34. When it's down to two in a district we set up a Hunger Games type of a deal.

[nxylas]

38. When it's down to two in a district...

...the GOP will gerrymander it into two districts.

[Arugula Latte]

39. Ha, you're right.

And then thousands of votes will mysteriously appear for the GOP candidate.

[Ikonoklast]

12. And it always backfires on the party doing it, usually with catastrophic results for that party.

The Republican Party is doomed within one generation if they keep doing what they're doing, and the crazies currently in charge are insuring it.

[calimary]

41. Hoping!!!

DEARLY AND ARDENTLY hoping!!! I want them GONE. Tear 'em DOWN. Scrape the lot. Start OVER.

[Scuba]

40. And who they can vote for.

[ck4829]

7. From Permanent Republican Majority in 2003 to to Permanent Republican Minority in 2013

What a change.

[rurallib]

8. but they do have most of the money and corporations

and money is speech and corporations are people my friend.

[Mass]

9. They know that. What they do not know how to do is to get the Tea Party people

to believe in governing (even in conservative ideas). As long as they oppose Obama, they think it is enough.

Saying NO is not enough to attract voters.

[AlbertCat]

14. A Shrinking Portion Of The Electorate'

And it's been a MINORITY for decades....

[albino65]

20. It had to happen

They are running out of stupid, old white racists. I assume it is through attrition. I only hope that Faux News runs out of an audience so they can't continue to poison the conversation.

[LonePirate]

27. Yet Cole still refuses to modernize his views and fails to reach out to other voting blocs

Until he starts embracing the ideals of Democrats and progressives, he will remain part of the problem in DC.

[MoreGOPoop]

28. K & R

Will it fit in a bathtub yet?

[Beartracks]

31. So Cole says Republicans need to become "not Republicans"...

... At least not Republicans by today's definition of "Republican."

-----------------

[OnionPatch]

64. The last thing they plan to do is come to their senses

Or evolve their ideas. When they talk about "appealing" to other demographics, what they really mean is they want to find a way to trick these voting blocks into believing their propaganda. And I wouldn't write off their chances just yet. They got everyone to believe in trickle down economics, didn't they?

[Beartracks]

68. To Repubs, "appealing" means "hoodwinking." And even that facade ends after the election. n/t

[yurbud]

36. they are like a monkey holding on to a nut in a bottle

the white racists are the nut, and the GOP can't grab anyone else while their holding on to it, and the can't hold on to it while they're trying to grab anyone else.

I've got to update this:

[Wolf Frankula]

44. Old Loonies are a shrinking part of the population

And 'Gott Mit Uns' was originally a Protestant war cry from the Thirty Years War. The Nazis stole it, like they stole the swastika.

Wolf

[trof]

47. But, but, if repugs did THAT, they'd be...um...DEMOCRATS.

[blkmusclmachine]

49. That's because all the moderate Republicans are fleeing over to the "Democratic" Party. You'll know

them because they call themselves the "New Democrats."

[Major Nikon]

51. Catch-22

The GOP's demographics are white, old, and bigoted. Any attempts to bring in new demographics will alienate what they already have.

[ffr]

52. Only relevant if Dems go to the polls

We need a motivated 50 state strategy at the base level. Only when there are zero Rethugs elected can we slow our movement to free America from this backward bunch.

[Arugula Latte]

60. The GOP Coalition was in the pool!

It was cold!