Republicans: we're not the problem

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by: JeffcoBlue

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

If you were hoping Republicans might get the message after 2012's defeats and change course, I'm about to dash those hopes.

The party’s main problem, dozens of Republican National Committee members argued in interviews over three days this week, is who delivers its message and how, not the message itself. Overwhelmingly they insisted that substantive policy changes aren’t the answer to last year’s losses.

Moderation, at least at this stage, is no virtue at the RNC.

“It’s not the platform of the party that’s the issue,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said Friday after being easily reelected to a second, two-year term. “In many cases, it’s how we communicate about it. It is a couple dumb things that people have said.” (JeffcoBlue emphasis)

A slide presented during a closed-press strategy session said that Mitt Romney might be president if he had won fewer than 400,000 more votes in key swing states.

“We don’t need a new pair of shoes; we just need to shine our shoes,” said West Virginia national committeewoman Melody Potter.

Fellow Democrats should be ecstatic if Republicans are already rationalizing away all of the problems 2012 revealed for them. The Republican Party's problem is much more than a "couple dumb things people have said," it is that they have become the party of people who say dumb things. Their shoes don't need a shine, their entire platform must adapt to the modern age, or die like other political movements that ended as anachonisms. For too many years, the GOP has won ideological battles whether or not they were in the majority. Now, they're running out of excuses as the consequences of their ideology show up everywhere.

But forget that. It's time for more denial…

9 thoughts on “Republicans: we’re not the problem”

Gray in Mountains says:

January 27, 2013 at 2:02 pm

On CSpan this weekend yesterday, National Review Institute. Watched parts. Sen Cruz sounds a lot like Santoru though he avoided talking about contraception or abortion. They began with a panel of 6, no women, one likely candidate, Joe Scarborough. Message from most, not Scarborough is as Poitico presents. Watch out for Scarborough, dude is plotting/planning

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MADCO says:

January 27, 2013 at 2:20 pm

maybe.

In any Presidential election, I would estimate roughly 3/8 will vote their usaul party preferance, no matter their actual registration and no matter tha candidate.

the other 1/4 – up for grabs.

So the question for the GOTP is whether they can put the 1/4th in play – while ~~suppressing~~ discouraging the 3/8 who vote D.

I think they can with three ingredients they lacked this last time: a likeable candidate, a less "punishing" primary, and new wedgie issues.

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1. Gray in Mountains says:
  
  January 27, 2013 at 4:12 pm
  
  I think the wedge issue, the GOP will try to make it so, will be education
  
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harrydoby says:

January 27, 2013 at 2:53 pm

Paul Ryan loses another debate — with himself:

Paul Ryan made a pessimistic prediction about Congress on Sunday.

“We think these sequesters will happen because the Democrats have opposed our efforts to replace those cuts with others and they’ve offered no alternative,” he said on Meet the Press.

It's worth noting that Ryan not only voted for the sequester, he championed it.

From HuffPo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/27/paul-ryan-sequester-spending-cuts_n_2562528.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

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1. JeffcoBlue says:
  
  January 27, 2013 at 7:38 pm
  
  +1 — This is what moral bankruptcy looks like.
  
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dippleganger says:

January 28, 2013 at 4:16 pm

Doesn't it just…. make your skin crawl just a little?

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EccentricRepublican says:

January 28, 2013 at 5:02 pm

Of course we're not the problem. Everyone else is the problem. True Republicans® never question this.

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harrydoby says:

January 28, 2013 at 5:07 pm

Paul Krugman puts it best (from NYT http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/opinion/krugman-makers-takers-fakers-.html?smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto&_r=1&):

As a result, prominent Republicans have begun acknowledging that their party needs to improve its image. But here’s the thing: Their proposals for a makeover all involve changing the sales pitch rather than the product. When it comes to substance, the G.O.P. is more committed than ever to policies that take from most Americans and give to a wealthy handful.

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marklane1351 says:

January 28, 2013 at 6:01 pm

It doesn't matter who says it. Stupid comments about rape cannot be part of your platform. By the way anything other than rape is a horrible, criminal act is a stupid comment.

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