March 19, 2013 by David K. Sutton
The Incredible Dwindling Republican Party
The modern Republican Party is an interesting case study. You have a core that is consolidating itself around some of the most extreme right-wing personalities in the country. This core has a belief system that operates in absolutes: No path to citizenship — America is a Christian nation — Anti-choice — Pro-murderous assault weapons — Anti-gay — Anti-minority — Anti-women — and on, and on. And every member of the Republican Party who seeks local or national office must appease this radical core or face political oblivion.
But here’s the problem: The insurgent base of the Republican Party, loud and obnoxious, doing all it can to consolidate power, is actually shrinking. There are only so many white extremist old guys left in the country, and they are dying off with each passing year.
Yesterday Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus delivered his assessment of the Republican Party and what they need to do to fix what ails them. “There’s no one reason we lost,” said Priebus. “Our message was weak; our ground game was insufficient; we weren’t inclusive; we were behind in both data and digital; and our primary and debate process needed improvement.” OK, I can agree with all that. “The way we communicate our principles isn’t resonating widely enough. Focus groups described our party as narrow-minded, out of touch, and stuffy old men. The perception that we’re the party of the rich continues to grow.” Hmm, I wonder why that is? Wait, it’s at the tip of my tongue…
Priebus also said that the problem was not Republican principles, which he called “sound,” no, the problem according to Priebus is that Republicans aren’t properly selling their message. Or in other words, Republicans aren’t doing a good enough job of bullshitting. I don’t see any other way to put it, because we know that most of the country rejects the principles Priebus calls “sound.” So Republicans are either delusional and believe they have winning principles, or they are being incredibly honest in saying they need to do a better job selling something nobody wants to buy.
And even though the base of the Republican Party is dying off, that hasn’t stopped Republicans from doing whatever they can to make this base happy while alienating everyone else in the country.
That is the incredible dwindling Republican Party.
