...GOP still can’t shake that “47 percent” problem

[ProSense]

The Morning Plum: GOP still can’t shake that “47 percent” problem

Posted by Greg Sargent

That “47 percent” problem just won’t go away.

One of the big stories of the morning is that Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli’s new book contains passages that are very similar to the “47 percent” comments that helped doom Mitt Romney’s candidacy. It remains to be seen how damaging the comments will be to Cuccinelli, a rising star within the party. But beyond that, the news showcases the broader difficulties the GOP faces as Republicans “soul search” about how to remake their party.

Here are the key Cuccinelli comments, which are directed at unnamed “politicians”:

The amazing this is that they often grow government without protest from citizens, and sometimes they even get buy-in from citizens — at least from the ones getting the goodies…One of their favorite ways to increase their power is by creating programs that dispense subsidized government benefits, such as Medicare, Social Security, and outright welfare (Medicaid, food stamps, subsidized housing, and the like). These programs make people dependent on government. And once people are dependent, they feel they can’t afford to have the programs taken away, no matter how inefficient, poorly run, or costly to the rest of society. <...>

Citizens will vote for those politicians who promise more benefits each year, rather than the fiscally responsible politicians who try to point out that such programs are unsustainable and will eventually bankrupt the states or the nation…Creating government dependency is the typical method of operation for big-government statists.

There’s been a great deal of chatter among Republicans lately that they don’t really need to change their ideas; they merely need to change their tone. But as Cuccinnelli’s comments demonstrate, the ideas are the tone. The basic problem here is not the rhetoric; it’s the apparent belief among many conservatives that there isn’t any legitimate way that government assistance can be a positive force in people’s lives...This sort of thinking is increasingly at odds with the American mainstream, particularly the Obama coalition of minorities, college educated white women, and young voters that asserted itself in the last election. When it comes to Latinos in particular, the party’s problem is not just rooted in its harsh stance on immigration, as Jamelle Bouie noted recently. It’s also rooted in the fact that Latinos view government as a positive force and are repelled by the GOP’s hostile anti-government rhetoric. As such, it remains to be seen whether embracing immigration reform will even help repair the party’s relationship with this constituency.

Romney’s “47 percent” comments didn’t doom him because of their harshness alone, though that certainly played a part. Rather, he lost partly because of what those comments reflected: A broader inability to articulate any affirmative role for government to play in people’s lives. As many others have observed, the GOP’s basic problem is that it hasn’t articulated an actual policy agenda that has any chance of developing broad appeal. This task is only made harder by the need to pander to many within the party who hew to the actual beliefs underlying Romney’s 47 percent comments — beliefs that are perfectly captured in Cuccinelli’s new book.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/01/31/the-morning-plum-gop-still-cant-shake-that-47-percent-problem/

[yellowcanine]

1. If Cuccinelli is a "rising star in the Republican Party" it will be good for Democrats.

Think Rick Santorum on steroids. The guy is driven by religious based factoids and plays a key role in what Politico calls the "GOP's Virginia problem."

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/the-gops-virginia-problem-86977.html?ml=po_r

As it is, Cuccinelli has already split the Republican Party in Virginia and it could hand the governor's office to the Democrats as well as allow Democrats to pick up seats in the Legislature.

[WinkyDink]

2. AKA: "Jimmy Carter's Revenge." :-)