The Republican Outreach Effort So Far

Posted on November 19, 2012 at 7:11 am by Bob Cesca

My Monday column. This outreach thing is going to be fun and frustrating to observe.

Tomorrow marks exactly two weeks since Mitt Romney decisively lost the 2012 election to President Obama. In this relatively short period of time, the consensus from both observers and insiders alike is that the Republican Party needs to (ahem) evolve or die.

The evolution has to include an outreach to women, to Latinos and other minorities and broadening the youth appeal of the party, while spending less time pandering to the crazy fringe. Otherwise the increasingly white rural Christian male base will slowly strangle and kill the party — further infecting it with an archaic 1950s monochromatic necrosis rather than establishing a plan with an eye on the 2050s.

So how are they doing so far? [continued]

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  • http://twitter.com/SugaRazor Razor

    Again: Bobby Jindal believes he’s performed an exorcism.

    • D_C_Wilson

      I hope he runs just so we can see interviews of the people involved in that.

  • GrafZeppelin127

    There was a great diary on Daily Kos the other day about Jindal’s Op-Ed, breaking down how the piece calling for an end to mindless slogans and empty pablum consisted almost entirely of mindless slogans and empty pablum. Worth a read.

    I don’t think the post-Romney Republicans are, or will be, any more serious than Romney was. They should, but they won’t, for exactly the reason Bob states in his article: The Fox/radio/Drudge hordes will have a freakout the moment they try to step outside the paracosm.

    Just as President Obama, like all second-term presidents, is out to establish his legacy, his opponents’ job is now to wreck that legacy, to make sure that he goes down in history as a lousy president, no matter what he actually accomplishes. They’ve been repeating the phrase “worst president ever” for four years now, and they’re going to keep repeating it until it becomes true, even if it doesn’t and won’t. They have to do what they did to Clinton, and make it impossible for the Dem candidate in 2016 to run on Obama’s accomplishments, for Obama to campaign for him/her, and for House and Senate candidates to ride his coattails in 2014 or 2016.

    As long as there’s more money to be made from psychotic paranoid fantasy than from actual, you know, information, the “conservative media entertainment complex” is going to keep the GOP right where it is.

    • Nefercat

      For a second I thought that read “conservative medieval entertainment complex.”

      I suppose it could.

      • GrafZeppelin127

        Edited.

  • Nefercat

    “The evolution has to include an outreach to women, to Latinos and other minorities…”

    …and all the other American citizens including retirees, active duty military, the disabled, children, etc., that the republicans (and in particular, their enthusiastically participating nominee) have spent years (and in particular, this campaign) excoriating as lazy moochers waiting for gifts and handouts, who don’t work, who never have and never will be productive, contributing citizens, and who are takers from the real American citizens (bankers, the 1%, corporations, lobbyists, and of course, the gullible suckers who make it all possible).

    There. Didn’t want to leave anyone out. Good luck with that plan, republicans.

  • bphoon

    (shakes head) The Republicans obviously haven’t learned a damn thing. Hell, I’m a 58-year-old white guy. I’m squarely in their demographic (apparently the only one they have left) and they keep dissing me routinely. Prior to 1998, I was an independent who voted both sides of the ticket. I registered Democratic when the Clinton impeachment showed me very clearly that the GOP is interested solely in gaining and retaining power for power’s sake using any means “necessary” regardless of the impact on the country. The one group that influenced me the most to change my voter registration was the Republican Party. I voted for Clinton (twice), Gore, Kerry and Obama (twice) and couldn’t be paid enough to vote for a Republican these days.

    I’m an Army retiree. I get health insurance and a pension check from the government. Took me 21 years’ service to earn that. I’m also a regional sales manager for a global manufacturer in the construction industry. Through my efforts and those of the reps I work with, I account for over $4.5 million in gross sales for my company each year. This helps keep people employed, among other things. My colleagues and I contribute to the health of a company that managed to grow, both internationally and domestically, through the recession and since.

    I”m not part of the 1%, far from it. I’m not part of the 5% or even the 10%. Yet, I manage to contribute to our economy in ways tangible and intangible. I therefore resent being referred to, both explicitly and my innuendo, as a “taker” versus a “maker”.

    “Makers”: Please keep in mind that without the efforts of us “takers”, you wouldn’t be able to “make” a damn thing.

    • MrDHalen

      The “Takers” vs. “Makers” is again classic projection by the GOP. Workers “make” stuff and CEO’s/executives “take” a cut.