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Monday, March 18, 2013

Politics I Haven't Read It Yet, but I'll Tell You Why This Republican Autopsy Is Useless

Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 10:52 AM

I haven't yet read the full 97-page "autopsy" that the Republican Party released this morning, but it looks like it does touch on some important issues that Republicans are going to have to address if they want to win future elections: Minority outreach, a shorter primary season, better data management. I love this line from the Politico story about the report:

“Asked to describe Republicans, they said that the Party is ‘scary,’ ‘narrow minded,’ and ‘out of touch’ and that we were a Party of ‘stuffy old men,’” it states.

But I think that this paragraph is much more telling:

For instance, there are no references to abortion or Planned Parenthood — or any of the issues that were at the heart of the battle for female voters last year. The report says the GOP lost the “war on women” messaging but doesn’t make clear how the party should be on offense going forward.

For all the talk of inclusiveness, there seems to be a stubbornness about the party, an inability to admit that the policies are the problem. And as much as this report will drive the discussion this week, I don't think it's going to make much of a difference in the party. Note, for instance, that it was released immediately after CPAC. Why wouldn't Republican leadership want this report to be a major topic of discussion at the one event of the year where the most prominent members of the party are in attendance? Because they knew the report would be backed against a wall and ripped to shreds by speech-makers who are eager for an easy applause line.

Speaking as someone who watched every single Republican debate of the 2012 election cycle, I can tell you what effect this report will have on the next Republican presidential debate: Some fringe-y candidate will grunt out some boilerplate like: "I don't care what some market-tested report full of skewed polls tells us about the Republican Party. We don't tailor our values to what the mainstream media wants us to think. We think what we think because we know it's right, and no report is gonna change our minds." Cue hoots and cheers from the audience, cue praise from the right-wing blogosphere, cue the end of this report.

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Here's my opinion: It has nothing to do with specific policies or groups. It's simply this:

Conservative people will always exist and they will for the most part always be conservative. This means they will group together, build a consensus idea of what "tradition" means, usually involving majority in-group defensiveness, and then advocate for that.

The thing now? Rapid social change. This just throws them off, so they don't know what to do. In periods of slower change, they'd be stronger. Vice versa for leftists, they'd be floundering in times of steadiness, peace & prosperity.

Posted by Indighost on March 18, 2013 at 11:00 AM

Paul, I think you meant the first link should be:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/130960510/Grow…

Posted by raindrop on March 18, 2013 at 11:01 AM

Um, Gay Dude For Raindrop, I don't think you're paying attention. Your party isn't exactly growing...

Posted by sperifera on March 18, 2013 at 11:05 AM

I listen to these post-mortems and this is all I hear:

"I recognize that I weigh 800 pounds, can no longer move or care for myself, and have medical problems ranging from severe diabetes to festering bedsores. This may or may not be related to my decision to eat nothing but chocolate, fried chicken, and mayonnaise for the last 20 years. If only I could figure out a way to change my situation! Now shut up and give me more fried chicken and mayonnaise!"

Posted by Pope Buck I on March 18, 2013 at 11:06 AM

To clarify my previous post, they're having trouble because the majority in-group (financially comfortable religious whites) is now only a plurality and the whole party is built around the assumption that this group makes up a majority either by itself oor plus its wanna-bes. Now, it doesn't, so there's really nothing they can do.

Posted by Indighost on March 18, 2013 at 11:07 AM

One problem with conservatives I see is that they don't have enough specific, detailed plans.

I keep hearing them say "our plan is Freedom and Liberty!"

Sounds real cute, but I don't know many people who would elect a leader based on platitudes alone.

Posted by Urgutha Forka on March 18, 2013 at 11:14 AM

Hail the Tea Party ! Its the new black...

They have the ideas that can best deal with the grinning-golfer and his fundamental change for the worse.

Posted by GeneStoner on March 18, 2013 at 11:17 AM

GOP Soul-Searching Has Predictable Result

Posted by Olo on March 18, 2013 at 11:20 AM

Autopsy Report concludes suicide; Republicans bray against their murderer.

Posted by Ruke on March 18, 2013 at 11:26 AM

97 pages?

That's too long for Republican legislators!

Posted by Deep Wood Grain Death Paneling on March 18, 2013 at 11:32 AM

@10: Try 2700 pages, that's too long for all legislators, especially the House Minority Leader, bless her heart.

Posted by raindrop on March 18, 2013 at 11:39 AM

The GOP is out of touch also because of their far right wing austerity plan and plundering of the safety net that is overwhelmingly rejected by the people. Sure, GOPers don't want to discuss it but journalists at an alternative weekly could talk about it.

Posted by anon1256 on March 18, 2013 at 11:40 AM

Face it the Whig Party (or GOP) is just a branch of al-Qaeda, determined to attack America, our Government, our President, and our Economy.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on March 18, 2013 at 11:48 AM

@11 What a great example of Republican outreach to women.

Posted by fletc3her on March 18, 2013 at 11:52 AM

97 pages long? The Republicans will treat it as a Teal Dear. Challenges Republican's existing view of themselves and their beliefs? The Republicans will treat it as hearsay.

The notion that the Republican party represents conservative thought is laughable.

Posted by Machiavelli was framed on March 18, 2013 at 11:53 AM

All I keep thinking is CPAC this weekend made it clear that the Teabaggers are going to keep embracing homophobia and racism and giving the party a nervous breakdown.

Posted by Pope Peabrain on March 18, 2013 at 11:59 AM

Team Rape made a pact back in the 80's, and the chickens have come home to roost. Reagan denounced government itself. So how can a group dismantle the very structure it is trying to control at the same time? We have what we see-- policies that don't work. Not only that, but they are specifically geared towards destroying America. Only idiots & demagogues believe in "trickle-down" economics. Cutting everything the government does besides the military is a sure-fire path to cutting our own throats. Which is what the conservatives have been running for thirty years and now people are (finally) understanding what it means: the end of America.

They can't change what they've built their identity upon. There is no future for them besides doubling-down on their SOP: rigging elections, heavy propaganda arms in the major media (hello CNN!) and being blindly obedient to people who shit out $100k chunks, smear it on the politicos face and expect at least a 5 million $ return in tax breaks & loopholes.

Posted by Some Old Nobodaddy Logged In on March 18, 2013 at 12:00 PM

There was a line in Cloud Atlas that went something like this:

The last response of a dying ideology: denial.

Posted by jeffg166 on March 18, 2013 at 12:02 PM

@15 - You misspelled heresy.

Posted by sperifera on March 18, 2013 at 12:27 PM

The first major subhead under "Messaging" is Some People Say, “Republicans Don’t Care”.

As Rush Limbaugh once quipped "They say conservatives don't care about people in need. That's not true. We do care ... just not very much."

Posted by RonK, Seattle on March 18, 2013 at 12:41 PM

The GOP would like to make it clear they're not just the party of homophobic, racist, sexist, white men. They welcome homophobic sexist racists of any gender or color.

Posted by dwightmoodyforgetsthings

on March 18, 2013 at 1:07 PM

"According to this report, the deck chairs are in desperate need of re-arranging."

Posted by Proteus on March 18, 2013 at 2:14 PM

What's really going on here is that the Democrats are actually fundamentally paranoid that the Republicans might actually become a welcoming non-homophobic, non-sexist, non-racist party of any gender or color.

Posted by raindrop on March 18, 2013 at 2:15 PM

@21. Self-hating gays?

Posted by OOF POOF on March 18, 2013 at 2:23 PM

@24- They have a special club for them!

Posted by dwightmoodyforgetsthings

on March 18, 2013 at 2:44 PM

@23--Given that in the 2012 presidential election the Republicans lost the asian, hispanic, black, gay and women votes--and by a wide margin--the Democrats would have to be "fundamentally paranoid" to believe that the Republicans "might actually become a welcoming non-homophobic, non-sexist, non-racist party of any gender or color."

It ain't happening any time soon.

Posted by Clayton on March 18, 2013 at 3:01 PM

Republican men have no idea how to handle a vagina? It's telling that they think women are messaging. The RNC voted against renewal of VOWA putting party ahead of protections for women, and will ban abortion in North Dakota and divert millions into a legal fight to inspire their base of old white men.

Posted by biffp on March 18, 2013 at 3:38 PM

@3 - "Gay Dude For Raindrop"

Well played.

Posted by Pridge Wessea on March 18, 2013 at 3:49 PM

Has any major Republican condemned Scott Terry for his "slavery was just feeding/clothing/coddling Blacks" outburst at the "We're not racist -- we just say racist things" outreach session at CPAC?

Condemning racist speech and racism would be a first step for Republicans to get minority votes, at the very least.

Posted by Patricia Kayden on March 18, 2013 at 5:58 PM

@29: Why should they? This isn't a member of Congress that needs to be admonished, or even a state legislator. Otherwise, Bohner for example, would be denouncing someone every 15 minutes and thereby excruciatingly extending people like Scott Terry's 15 min of fame.
You don't expect Obama to denounce Michelle Shocked do you?

Posted by raindrop on March 18, 2013 at 8:41 PM

@23 - Why would a bunch of segregationists not being shunned by anyone at CPAC make us paranoid about the GOP's getting more of the African American vote?

I bet if Michelle Shocked went on her rant while performing at, say, the Democratic National Convention, Obama would have something to say about it.

But here's he difference: Obama doesn't need the homo-hater vote.

Posted by Free Lunch on March 18, 2013 at 9:34 PM

@6. They do have very specific plans but can't say what the are because they all end with "and this is why xyz people should be allowed to suffer/die".

Posted by GhostDog on March 19, 2013 at 9:39 AM