"The Morning Plum: House GOP stomps all over Republican rebranding"

[applegrove]

The Morning Plum: House GOP stomps all over Republican rebranding

By Greg Sargent at the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/06/13/the-morning-plum-house-gop-stomps-all-over-republican-rebranding/

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That much-ballyhooed Republican National Committee “autopsy” into what went wrong in 2012 declared that the Republican Party needs to improve its outreach to Latinos, women, and gays, and acknowledged a need to reckon with the rising embrace of gay rights among young voters. Analysts have similarly determined that the Republican Party’s failure to improve its appeal among these groups could be problematic over the long term, because they comprise key groups in the “Rising American Electorate,” i.e., groups that are increasingly important to the Democratic coalition of the future and will only be growing as a share of the vote. Yet these big-ticket items emerging from the House appear narrowly pitched to nativists and religious and social conservatives who make up the GOP base.

Even some Republicans appear worried about this. As one unnamed GOP strategist told National Journal’s Josh Kraushaar, the King amendment on immigration “reinforces a tone of insensitivity that is just beyond baffling.” Kraushaar concluded that recent GOP behavior — including the party’s spurning of pragmatic GOP governors like Chris Christie — suggest that the RNC’s recommendations “have been forgotten.”

As one Democrat remarked to me, if anything, all of this could intensify the pressure on Republicans to pass immigration reform, since they are running out of ways to genuinely signal a new, more tolerant, more inclusive direction. Yet even here, it’s looking very possible that House Republicans may not prove able to accept a path to citizenship. This, as a new analysis of a number of polls shows public support for immigration reform is overwhelming.

Of course, the flip side of this argument is: Why should Republicans change at all? After all, thanks to geographic patterns of partisan population distribution and gerrymandering, the GOP grip on the House remains a lock, and Republicans will likely make gains in the Senate. Which raises a question that I wish the political science eggheads would answer: Are the structural aspects of our politics such that no matter how aggressively Republicans pursue policies that risk alienating core voter groups they need to improve their appeal among, it won’t materially impact the party’s fortunes? Is there a point at which any of this matters?


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[giftedgirl77]

1. ugh these morons need to go away

as I was driving to work this morning there was yet again another discussion about how the dem party (particularly the younger voters) fail miserably at getting out to vote during midterms. Like this is news to anyone who has been alert & paying attention to the world outside of their own happy fun filled world.

But seriously, this is a HUGE issue especially for us crazy liberals trapped in the colon of the county known as the south. I do what I can which usually involves posting the fucked things my reps have done lately up at the bodega on the corner & shootin the shit with the owner & anyone else who wants to join in.

I guess I've gotten to the point where I'm sick of watching the ppl here get screwed over by these idiots so I'm going to start at least do something to try to change it.