Only Angry White Men Need Apply
The Los Angeles Times has an article about a recent poll of California politics and opened with this sentence:
Republicans had to look for a very long time at last week’s Field Poll of California voters to find something remotely uplifting as they ponder the 2010 state elections.
A few paragraphs into the article comes the crux of the Republican Party’s problem today and in the years to come:
Right now, however, there is one group in which they really don’t, and that is among younger voters. The conundrum for the state Republican Party and its candidates: how to get ethnically diverse voters who demand healthcare reform and environmental protection to side with a party associated with neither, and whose icon remains a former president elected before they were born.
Crocodile tears. Here’s the one time that we should not follow the axiom, “Don’t kick a man while he’s down.”
Tags: GOP
I think that’s one of the biggest problems the GOP faces right now. It boils down to: the country is getting browner, and by each election, more old people have died. To stay relevant, they definitely have to work on appealing to a younger and more diverse base. And Michael Steele ain’t the answer, baby. I hate to rewind us a year, but they’re just putting lipstick on a pig right now. Saying the same things in hipper, or more Spanish, language will not do it. The GOP needs to actually update some of it’s core platforms, and so far they’ve been unwilling or unable to do it.
The funny thing is that this is one of the few points where George Bush was actually doing right. Some of his policies, like immigration reform, were starting to help the GOP with Hispanics. However, he doesn’t seem to have much pull in Republican policymaking these days…
As funny as it sounds, Meghan McCain is right. Repubs would do themselves a HUGE favor with young people if they jumped on the train for gay rights. All of my young republican friends (they exist!) think that’s a no brainer. Even the one young wingnut I know is for marriage equality and repeal of DADT and DOMA.
I think you’re absolutely right, V. Someday, far down the road, they will. Right now, I think even the Republicans who might quietly support such a move are way too afraid of angering the religious base. And frankly, right now, the religious base pretty much is the base. But if they can’t be pro-gay or pro-immigrant right now, what they could do is stop being so openly anti-gay and anti-immigrant. Fortunately for Democrats, I’m not sure there’s anyone in the GOP today with the right combination of common sense and power to do that.
It’s only a matter of time before the GOP starts claiming that Abraham Lincoln was the first gay president.
Have you been hanging out with the Log Cabin Republicans again?
Only at highway rest stops.
There goes this site’s DADT. Perhaps “hanging out” was a poor choice of words.
But all seriousness aside, I accidentally showed that there really are some Republicans who do want to see their party change it’s stance on the issue. I just don’t see them having much success any time soon.
Scott P: Agreed. Bush’s immigration reform was a reasonable first step and a bipartisan bill. Opposition to the reform act, fueled by the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity who despise the “browning” of America, essentially killed the bill. It was also the beginning of the end for the GOP with minorities, young people and those who understand the United States is a country of immigrants.
On another topic, from CNN:
States and other recipients of stimulus funding have handed in their first assessments of the $787 billion recovery act in recent days. While the Obama administration plans to make these reports public by month’s end, some governors have released their initial evaluations.
In California, stimulus funds have created or saved more than 100,000 jobs through the end of September, according to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The nation’s most populous state — the world’s eighth largest economy — has been awarded $12.7 billion in recovery money and has spent $5.3 billion so far.
Minnesota said that 11,800 jobs — including 5,900 in education, 1,200 in public safety and 900 in transportation — were created or saved. The state has spent more than $1.6 billion in stimulus funds so far.
In Tennessee, which has spent $215 million, the tally is more than 7,700 jobs.
And in Oregon, more than 8,000 jobs have been saved or created. The recovery act provided the state “a much needed parachute for what was a free falling economy,” said Gov. Ted Kulongoski, adding that the state has spent $1 billion of its stimulus funds.
Overall, the federal government has so far made available $256.3 billion, while $110.7 billion has been spent.
The White House last month said the recovery act is responsible for more than 1 million jobs. Fair to say it also stopped the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs in health, transportation and education.
I disagree that the Republican party needs to find a way to appeal to young, brown and gay voters. Why would we *want* them to do that?
The Republican party doesn’t need new blood, it needs to just die already.