The Republican Party 2012 Autopsy that goes by the name Growth and Opportunity Project is a couple of weeks old now. Two major foci of the report were on messaging and on building “demographic partners.” Essentially, communicating in a way that doesn’t promote the widespread perception that the G.O.P. doesn’t care about people.
Let’s look at today’s news to see how they’re doing.
From the “Killing Us Softly With Our Song” file: Today, RNC Chair Reince Priebus pens a piece at Redstate (via Steve Benen):
The President, the Senate Majority Leader, the House Democratic Leader, and the Chair of the Democratic National Committee (in whose home state this hearing occurred) made funding Planned Parenthood an issue in the 2012 campaign. They should now all be held to account for that outspoken support. If the media won’t, then voters must ask the pressing questions: Do these Democrats also believe a newborn has no rights? Do they also endorse infanticide?
The inference is that if you support Planned Parenthood you support INFANTICIDE! Clearly, users of Planned Parenthood are part of the vast infanticide conspiracy!
There’s one hell of a make-over there! It’s a big tent…unless you support or use the services of Planned Parenthood.
And from the “South Will Do it Again” file: Eleven NC lawmakers come up with a novel interpretation of the U.S. Constitution so that they can do things like establish a State religion:
The Constitution “does not grant the federal government and does not grant the federal courts the power to determine what is or is not constitutional” according to a resolution sponsored by North Carolina House Majority Leader Edgar Starnes (R) and ten of his fellow Republicans — a statement that puts them at odds with over 200 years of constitutional law. In light of this novel reading of the Constitution, Starnes and his allies also claim that North Carolina is free to ignore the Constitution’s ban on government endorsement of religion
Ian Millhiser points out that this is a sorry attempt to undo the Fourteenth Amendment that is a major constitutional legacy of the Civil War.
Really…it IS a big tent, as long as you worship the right God (i.e. atheists and non-Fundamentalist Christians need not apply). Oh…and you believe North Carolina was on the right side of the Civil War.
And, from the “Catholic Schoolgirls Rule” file comes this from Tennessee:
Republicans are taking a second look at [a school voucher] bill after the possibility arose that some Islamic schools could apply for the same funding made available to other religious schools.
The bill is a top priority for Republican Governor Bill Haslam, but several anti-religion lawmakers in the state senate, led by Sen. Bill Ketron who sponsored several anti-Islam bills in the last few years, are hoping to strip away the ability for any school that caters to Muslim children and their families to receive public dollars:
You see…it REALLY IS a big tent UNLESS you worship the RIGHT God (i.e. the Old Testiment God shared by Islam, Christianity and Judaism) but under the wrong brand name.
And from the “Jamie’s Got a Gun” file comes this NPR interview with Rocky Mountain (CO) Gun Owners President Dudley Brown:
“This is a very Western state with traditional Western values,” he says. “And citizens had to have firearms for self-defense, and right now that’s still the case.”
And maybe the need for guns is for reasons bigger than just self-defense….
“I liken it to the proverbial hunting season,” Brown says. “We tell gun owners, ‘There’s a time to hunt deer. And the next election is the time to hunt Democrats.’ ”
Yes…in this time of troubled shootings of school children, politicians, prosecutors, law enforcement personnel and movie-goers, there is nothing that says, “We care about you” more then not-so-subtle calls for violence against your political opponents.
Feel. The. Love. (or else!)
Today’s news blurbs are just a microcosm of a trend that spells big troubles for the future of the G.O.P.:Republicans are increasingly isolated on major political and policy issues”.
It’s a Big Tent…a Big Empty Tent.
