Washington Post (Post Partisan)
By Jonathan Capehart
August 13, 2015
“Republicans
have lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential
elections. States in which [GOP] presidential candidates used to win,
such as New Mexico,
Colorado, Nevada, Iowa, Ohio, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Florida, are
increasingly voting Democratic.
“Public
perception of the party is at record lows. Young voters are
increasingly rolling their eyes at what the party represents, and many
minorities … think that Republicans
do not like them or want them in the country. When someone rolls their
eyes at [Republicans], they are not likely to open their ears to [them].
“The
Republican Party needs to stop talking to itself. [It has] become
expert in how to provide ideological reinforcement to like-minded
people, but devastatingly [it
has] lost the ability to be persuasive with, or welcoming to, those who
do not agree with [Republicans] on every issue.
“The
perception, revealed in polling, that the GOP does not care about
people is doing great harm to the party … Asked to describe Republicans,
they said that the party
is ‘scary,’ ‘narrow minded,’ and ‘out of touch.’ ”
How
I would love to be able to claim credit for this clear-eyed and
withering assessment of the Republican Party. With minor editing on my
part for dramatic effect, those
words were lifted directly from the “Growth & Opportunity Project.”
You know it as the GOP autopsy of its 2012 presidential loss.
The
message and prescriptions of the 99-page report have been ringing in my
ears ever since Donald Trump insulted his way to the top of the polls
for the 2016 Republican
presidential nomination. The bloviating Big Apple billionaire builder
is the antithesis of what the vital two-year-old document calls for.
GOP
primary voters say they are gravitating to Trump because he “tells it
like it is.” After he branded Mexicans crossing the southern border as
“rapists,” his poll numbers
went up. After he slurred the Vietnam captivity of Sen. John McCain
(R-Ariz.), his numbers went up. After saying, “Only Rosie O’Donnell,” in
response to a question about his calling women “fat pigs, dogs, slobs
and disgusting animals,” he was met with thunderous
applause.
The
only person to echo the ethos of the GOP autopsy was Ohio Gov. John
Kasich. When asked by Megyn Kelly how he would explain his opposition to
same-sex marriage if he
had a gay or lesbian child, Kasich gave a pitch-perfect answer.
I
just went to a wedding of a friend of mine who happens to be gay.
Because somebody doesn’t think the way I do, doesn’t mean that I can’t
care about them or can’t love
them. So if one of my daughters happened to be that, of course I would
love them and I would accept them. Because you know what? That’s what
we’re taught when we have strong faith….
So
the issues like that, issues like that are planted to divide us. …[W]e
need to give everybody a chance, treat everybody with respect, and let
them share in this great
American dream that we have, Megan. So, look, I’m going to love my
daughters, I’m going to love them no matter what they do. Because, you
know what, God gives me unconditional love. I’m going to give it to my
family and my friends and the people around me.
That
wonderful Kasich answer aside, the GOP was already doing a horrible job
of meeting the goals in the autopsy before Trump joined the Gang of 17.
But with each ugly
utterance, the Republican frontrunner pushes the party further and
further away from its worthy goal. To the delight of the GOP base (and
more than a few giddy Democrats), Trump has brought bread and circuses
to the Republican Party by employing the chaos
of reality television to the election of the leader of the free world.
The
hate-fueled self-immolation of the GOP would be a laugh riot were the
consequences not so dire. Our democracy depends on a thriving two-party
system where competing
parties and the voices within each vigorously debate ideas and then
reach the reasonable compromises needed to govern an enterprise as
important as the United States. Since 2010, the Republican Party has
succumbed to its basest voices for short-term political
gain. Compromise became a dirty word. Lies were peddled as truth and
never corrected by those who knew better. Invective was liberally
employed against opponents no matter the party and without consequences.
Autopsies
are done on dead things. Trump’s rise is further proof that plans for a
more inclusive and welcoming GOP for 2016 are DOA.
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