GOP is Out of Touch and Scary

[DaShi]

According to American voters.

As part of the Growth and Opportunity Project's effort, focus groups were conducted in Columbus, Ohio, and Des Moines, Iowa, to listen to voters who used to consider themselves Republicans. These are voters who recently left the Party. Asked to describe Republicans, they said that the Party is "scary," "narrow minded," and "out of touch" and that we were a Party of "stuffy old men." This is consistent with the findings of other post-election surveys.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/0...#ixzz2Nul1ydxa

Should the party change its image, policies, or both?

What's quite interesting is how they are currently struggling with this very question. The are trying to both reform and stand their ground at the same time. For example, you have the likes of Sarah Palin complaining that the SuperPACs and RNC have too much power in the selection of candidates and yet asking for fewer debates and an early nomination convention which hinders the chances of insurgent candidates to stand out and make their case.

[Hauldren Collider]

Breaking News: DaShi doesn't like Republicans!!!!

[loinburger]

Obviously the Republicans need to be more conservative if they want to appeal to voters

[DaShi]

Breaking News: DaShi doesn't like Republicans!!!!

Had you read the post, I was actually quite neutral. Even the title comes directly from the RNC. You really need to stop making assumptions. You are never correct.

[DaShi]

Obviously the Republicans need to be more conservative if they want to appeal to voters

This is the dilemma, isn't it? I think it's great that they are becoming more accepting of immigrants and gay rights because those are important issues to the key demographics of Hispanics and the young. However, it's certainly going to rile their base and the BK's of the country.

[loinburger]

A split between the moderates and the reactionaries would kind of make sense, but in a two party system it would also kill them

[PLATO]

A split would kind of make sense, but in a two party system it would also kill them

We haven't always had Republicans and Democrats...I suppose anything is possible. Still, it would take a massive organizational effort to create any type of viable third party...one that would, on the surface, seem unfeasible.

[DaShi]

If they could pull enough democrats who support the liberal social policies but want the conservative economic policies, then they would have a chance. But yes, the far right conservatives would wither and die.

[loinburger]

I'm a bit concerned about the repercussions of marginalizing a large group of gun-toting bigots.

Problem: minorities are voting for the other parties. Solution: kill the minorities.

[DaShi]

I think you've hit on the solution on how to deal with gun-toting bigots.

[MichaeltheGreat]

A split between the moderates and the reactionaries would kind of make sense, but in a two party system it would also kill them

Not necessarily. If you split the right and center in the GOP, you might well see a corresponding left and center split from the Dems as well.

[Kidlicious]

Breaking News: DaShi doesn't like Republicans!!!!

Breaking News: Most people don't.

[MrFun]

I'm not so sure the Republican party is on its way to ruin/destruction. With regard to social issues, it seems an increasing number of Republicans are finally seeing the writing on the wall.

At CPAC, The Marriage Fight Is Over
Opponents of gay rights spoke to a nearly empty room, while supporters had a standing room–only crowd. “We cannot be at war with America on issues of fairness, on issues of equality,” conservative Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin says.
posted on March 17, 2013 at 11:23pm EDT
Chris Geidner
BuzzFeed Staff

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Image by Chris Geidner/Buzzfeed

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Cleta Mitchell, a D.C. lawyer who successfully led the charge to keep the LGBT conservative group GOProud out of the Conservative Political Action Conference for the past two years, is finding out what it means to lose a hard-fought battle.
Mitchell and the National Organization for Marriage's Brian Brown looked down from a stage at the annual, signature conservative conference whose social values they'd fought to defend to find they'd lost their troops.
"We are treated as if we are bigots," Brown complained to a largely empty room, assembled for a panel dedicated to discussing the bullying they and other conservatives say they face from the Obama administration.
An hour later, speaking to a packed room at another CPAC panel about increasing tolerance in the party, GOProud executive director Jimmy LaSalvia basically agreed.
"We have tolerated something in our movement for far too long: anti-gay bigotry," LaSalvia said. "Let me be clear, I do not believe that just because someone opposes same-sex marriage that that automatically makes them a homophobe. But there are, however, a few. There are a few in our movement who just don't like gay people. In 2013, that just isn't OK in America anymore."
Like Brown at the earlier panel, LaSalvia appeared to view the afternoon as a key moment for this battle. Both men were on the offensive with striking vigor — and with good reason.
Far from a sole, fringe, pro-marriage equality speaker — and a day before Republican Sen. Rob Portman announced his support for marriage equality — panels both before and after Mitchell's panel had speakers encouraging the Republican Party and the conservative movement to embrace marriage equality.
They weren't always expected voices. Liz Mair and Margaret Hoover have been supportive of GOProud since the beginning, but this CPAC they were joined on a Thursday panel sponsored by the Competitive Enterprise Institute by none other than the National Review's Jonah Goldberg. Conservative scholar and provocateur Charles Murray also pointedly backed the cause at CPAC. Jennifer Rubin, the conservative Washington Post blogger, was among those speaking most strongly about how the Republican Party needs to adjust course on gay couples' marriage rights if it wants to survive.
"There are lots of rationales and lots of reasons that one can come to this conclusion. But, if you simply want to be a debating society, we can debate that. If you want to be a winning political party, I would suggest the debate has already taken place in America. We cannot be at war with America on issues of fairness, on issues of equality," Rubin said.
On the other side, Brown appeared, at least implicitly, to agree. Spending very little time addressing his arguments about marriage itself, most of his comments at CPAC were focused on how opponents of same-sex couples' marriage rights are treated.
Speaking of the Southern Poverty Law Center's hate-group listing, which includes the Family Research Council and the Ku Klux Klan, Brown said, "What happens when you lump together good people who know the truth about marriage with those who want to attack others? Well, we saw: A shooting happened. … You saw what happened to Chick-fil-A, simply because Dan Cathy says that he believes marriage is the union of a man and a woman."
Although ongoing issues of anti-LGBT violence and discrimination remain unaddressed and equality remains a distant goal — and although the Republican Party is nowhere near done with its internal debate — the die is cast and the once incredible notion of gay couples getting married has become a growing norm.
The fact that, even at CPAC, the question now is a real debate — strongly represented by advocates on all sides in discussions — is perhaps one of the strongest signs of just how successful the movement for marriage equality has been in recent years.
"We're looking at the new conservative coalition," GOProud's LaSalvia said Thursday about the crowded room. The biggest question that remains is whether and when a majority of the conservative movement will realize it.
If they don't, Rubin said, the party could be doomed.
"In 10 years, I don't know if there will be a Republican Party," Rubin said. "There's nothing that says that we have to be around. But there is a lot of evidence, historically, that the progress in America has been all in one direction: tolerance, inclusion, barriers fall. You don't go backwards."