(Part 2 of 3 . . . By continuing to focus on the bad
things they see about Obama’s Presidency, Republicans are missing the points
they themselves noted in their own analysis of the 2012 election. A continuing hard shift to
the right, led mostly by Donald Trump's fire breathing speeches and interviews,
won’t help. The right turn didn’t help in 2012, and a continued focus on social issues is losing
them support from women and Latinos, two groups they need if they are to win
the nation’s highest office.)
Oh well . . . so much for self-analysis. The Republicans
have bashed immigrants (legal and illegal), continue to hype failed
trickle-down economic policies, steadfastly refuse to reign-in domestic
companies dodging taxes by moving operations overseas, have made social issues
a key part of their campaigning.
Some of those stands will kill the party, although clearly
there’s a festering frustration with government that has manifested itself in a
long, warm embrace of Donald Trump and his fire breathing rhetoric. Never mind
that up until now he hasn’t offered any policy papers on any issues, though he
keeps saying he knows what to do. Trust him. Candidates, including Trump, want
to “fix” the immigration “problem” by throwing every undocumented immigrant and
his or her family out of the country, building a trillion-dollar wall along the
Mexican border, and killing the Constitution’s 14th amendment that
says kids born here are citizens and entitled to all that entails, including
equal protection under the law. (The amendment includes a wide range of other
issues.)
All that sounds good to some people, but politicians
saying they want to change the Constitution scares me more than a little. They
are feeding on fear and loathing, not making good policies.
Remember, to paraphrase Cameron, a party has to prove it
can govern. Republican have lost that edge. When Obama won his first term, the
stated Republican strategy was to defeat him so he wouldn’t win a second term.
They offered no big legislative ideas, but instead focused on trying to kill
every bill or proposal Obama made. It didn’t help. Obama won his second term
and the Republicans are still pissed. Unfortunately all that prissiness begs
the question as to whether or not Republicans can govern.
They obviously have in the past, and while some of the
philosophical benchmarks of their party have been thrown into the gutter
(small, less intrusive government and budget restraint as examples), there’s
still hope. Not with the current tone, though.
It’s not a leadership tone. It’s not a tone of building
businesses, resolving immigration, education or health care challenges. It’s a
small-minded tone of . . . We kind of
don’t like anyone.
They should have defeated Obama in his first run . . . but
they imploded with McCain and the party going insane by picking Sarah Palin as
his VP . . . and then Romney and the party failed to capitalize on Obama’s
perceived weaknesses and the shaky economy. Romney came across as an
out-of-touch rich guy, failed to gain the full support of his own party
(members of which continually questioned his “conservativeness.”) Romney,
through his political career, had a pretty moderate record, but he threw that
aside during the primaries and tried to take a hard right turn to better appeal
to more conservative primary voters. The end result was another win for Obama .
. . despite the shaky economy, a rise in unemployment, continued bleeding of
jobs and companies moving operations overseas, falling economic confidence,
rages against the Affordable Care Act, endless babbling about Obama’s religious
beliefs, birthplace, and “socialist” policies . . . Oh yes, and the color of his
skin. Despite all that AND an almost unbelievable disrespect for the office by
other elected officials . . . Obama won a second term. And the Republicans
haven’t recovered, found their own clear voice, or given us a vision of how
they would lead and govern.
Instead, they took their eyes off their own solutions and
kept hammering Obama. That has been a losing strategy. Because now we have no
idea where candidates or the party really stand on any policies. It’s a mushy
mess at this point, though as the field dwindles, some will start to stand out
for their policy promises, not just their rhetoric. I hope.
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