GOP's 2016 Strategy:  More of the Same

by John M. Curtis
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Copyright March 26, 2013
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        Picking 50-year-old Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) March 16 in its straw poll, the Conservative Political Action Conference signaled they have no intention of doing things differently in 2016, tapping a Tea Party favorite for its next presidential hopeful.  Paul ended his historic 13-hour filibuster March 16 over President Barack Obama’s Predator Drone Program and pick for CIA director John Brennan.  Among the most conservative voices in Congress, Paul’s kindred spirit is House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), whose presence on Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign helped sink the Republican ticket.  Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and former President George W. Bush’s chief strategist 62-year-old Karl Rove, a regular Murdoch’s Fox News and Wall Street Journal contributor, are now leading the Republican Party back to victory.

             Credited with helping get Bush elected to two terms, Rove left Bush in 2008 with the worst approval ratings in modern history.  Unlike former Democratic President Bill Clinton, Bush has disappeared in the last two campaigns, precisely because he was so unpopular.  How anyone in the GOP thinks Rove’s the right one to give advice is anyone’s guess.  Prevailing wisdom over Bush’s two terms eclipses GOP logic, something deserting the Party since 2008.  After a recent political autopsy, RNC chairman Priebus attributes the GOP failure to not going after enough minority voters.  His team believes that if the GOP selects more Latino candidates like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fl.), the Republicans would fair better next time around.  Priebus’ team suggested the GOP candidates should look less “scary” to voters, meaning holding less extreme right wing positions.

             Priebus himself claims he’s open to looking more moderate, despite his affiliation, like Paul, with the Tea Party wing of the GOP.  Suggesting that there’s separation between Rove and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin can’t be confirmed   When McCain picked Palin in 2008, he called her the “future of the Republican Party.”  Four years later she’s radioactive, seen as more a right wing caricature or nut case than a credible national voice.  McCain has never admitted how badly his chief strategist John Weaver blew his one chance of becoming president.  Picking Palin sucked McCain’s campaign down the tubes faster than Drano.  Four years later, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney did exactly the same thing picking right wing extremist and Tea Party favorite Paul Ryan.  Less than four months after the November disaster, the CPAC makes the same mistake.

             Picking Rand Paul gives the best possible clue where the Party’s heading into the future.  While National Review’s Charlie Cook warns the GOP to either change or go over the cliff, the Party’s already gone over the falls.  Holding a monopoly on political entertainment with national talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glen Beck, Mark Levin, etc., Murdoch’s media strategy has backfired.  Today’s GOP gains its media access through Murdoch’s right wing media empire, covering broadcast and print journalism.  More people see firsthand the right wing extremism that, according to Priebus, “scares” off GOP voters.  Picking a token Latino like Rubio, when the Party’s platform is fixated on banning abortion and gay marriage, won’t dupe enough voters to make a difference.  Citing former President Bush’s past success with Hispanics is no excuse for sabotaging the GOP.

             Whomever the power brokers in the GOP, Murdoch’s media empire has a stranglehold on the Party’s message.  “I’m sorry, but we’re not disrespectful to anybody,” Rush Limbaugh told his national audience.  “Look at what these focus groups have got these poor guys believing . . . Republicans are not narrow minded,” referring to the GOP’s obsession with bashing gay marriage and banning abortion.  Rush or his right wing media friends never say anything disrespectful about President Obama:  Only that he’s socialist hell-bent on destroying the U.S. economy and American dream.  Rush never says a bad word about Obama or any other Democrat on Capitol Hill.  Writing in Roll Call, political scientist Stuart Rothenberg said the GOP “continues to fracture more seriously that I expected following last year’s re-election of President Barack Obama,” seeing no change on the horizon.

             Blaming losses on a lack of minority voters, the GOP continues its delusion that bringing on a token Hispanic will save the Party.  Voters stayed away from the GOP because of extremists like Ryan, committed to eviscerating the social safety net that gives America’s seniors, disabled the poor Medicare and Medicaid.  Romney and Ryan staked their campaign on the false belief the vast majority of voters wanted to end Obamacare.  When the public figured out that Obama was giving them government-sponsored health insurance they warmed up to the idea.  As long as the GOP backs Ryan’s budget that scales back government entitlements and tosses thousands of federal workers out of their jobs, the GOP’s going to have a problem with mainstream voters.  Pretending that GOP failures were due to a lack of minorities completely ignores why they run, not walk, to the Democratic Party.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.