GOP's Ground Zero

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright Nov. 7, 2012
All Rights Reserved.                                         

             Sifting through the ruins of the Republican Party after President Barack Obama’s Electoral College landslide, the GOP finds itself in the exact same place as four years ago, trying to figure out what went wrong.  In 2008, GOP nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) picked former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.  Instead of maverick McCain picking someone like-minded, he acquiesced to conservative icon and radio host Rush Limbaugh picking an extreme right-winger.  When the GOP’s 2012 nominee former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney picked House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as his running mate Aug. 12, the same mistake was made.  While right wing extremists fair well in the GOP primaries, they scare independent voters away in the general election.  Rush insisted today the GOP failed because they weren’t conservative enough.

            Blanketing the airwaves for the past 25 years, Limbaugh has made an industry out of ranting about liberals.  Gone are the halcyon days of the Reagan years when a new brand of conservatism swept the nation.  Rush’s message hasn’t changed, only the public’s tolerance for the kind of vitriol and liberal-bashing that gave rise to a generation of theatrical conservatives, some with long blond hair, some with crew cuts and some with no hair at all.  When the GOP surveys the wreckage, the first order of business is tossing out Republican National Committee Chairman Rence Priebus, a naïve Tea Party upstart that doesn’t listen to his Party elders, like former President George H.W. Bush, that begged his Party for moderation.  Today’s GOP is so hijacked and buffaloed by a screaming class of conservative media stunts people that it can’t recognize fantasy from the real world.

            Today’s GOP world isn’t based in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, the home of the Arian Nation or other Republican sanctuaries.  Like the Democratic Party, the GOP also shares some 80% of the U.S. population living in America’s big cities.  Those diverse demographics are only getting more diverse as a shrinking White majority learns to partner with a wide variety of minorities, rapidly ascending into the mainstream.  “The voters have not endorsed the failures or excesses of the president’s first term,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kt.), showing the kind of bitter sour grapes that keeps Washington’s partisan divide.  “They have simply given him more time to finish the job they asked to do together,” stinging from the GOP’s losses in the U.S. Senate.  McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), whose home state voted for the president, needs to work with Obama.

            Romney’s stunning failure Nov. 6 had many moving parts.  While it’s tempting to oversimplify, Mitt’s only traction came from the weak economy.  He made no case of replacing Obama other than insisting the president botched the U.S. economy.  When a slew of positive economic reports hit for the Labor and Commerce Departments, U.S. auto industry and the National Assn. of Realtors, Romney ignored everything and stuck to his message.  Mitt’s chief strategist, ex-Hollywood screenwriter 62-year Stuart Stevens, insisted he stick to the “failing economy” script.  Voters eventually saw the disconnect between Romney’s story and stubborn economic facts.  Nowhere was this more evident in the upper Midwest where autoworkers were once again working on three shifts.  Losing the GOP leaning-Ohio by two percent showed that Midwesterners rewarded Barack for bailing out Detroit.

            Republicans real challenge now involves the internecine battle between moderates and conservatives.  Watching Obama get reelected by an Electoral College landslide during a time of economic upheaval shows a failed GOP strategy.  While there’s much criticism of Romney, the candidate, the GOP had its best shot of making Barack a one-term president but couldn’t do it.  Mitt’s running mate scared off so many Baby Boomers with all his talk of privatizing Medicare and Social Security, he sunk Romney’s campaign from Day 1.  Whatever one says about the Democrats’ so-called “ground game,” Romney and Ryan blew too much smoke about the “disastrous” economy and refused to give details of how they planned to fix the economy, other than cutting taxes.  Romney and Ryan’s entire argument for replacing Obama boiled down to:  Take my word for it, no proof necessary.

            As the GOP picks up the pieces, they need to stop listening to media clowns like Rush and pay attention to a growing constituency with a symbiotic tie to government.  Instead of bashing taxpayers for relying of government programs, the GOP should recognize the close relationship between the government and hard-workings citizens.  “At a time like this, we can’t risk partisan bickering,” Romney said in his concession speech.  “Our leaders have to reach across the aisle to do the people’s work,” reversing the bitter partisan tone of the campaign.  Deflated because of Barack’s big victory, the GOP must come to grips with who’s running the Party.  Extremists like the RNC’s Priebus must go, replaced by officials not hell-bent on ideology but on making the compromises needed to end Washington’s gridlock.  Instead of crying over spilt milk, the GOP needs to go back to square one.

 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.

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