The Failure of Republican Rebranding

Here's a commentary by an Esquire magazine editorialist analyzing the Republicans' greatest disaster of Since November, 2012.

After widely acknowledging that one of the keys to their loss was because of their inability to attract minority -- particularly Latino -- voters, they screwed the pooch in immigration reform.

Interesting read.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Rebranding_Fail

JUN 14, 2013
The Failure Of Republican Rebranding
By Charles P. Pierce


You may recall that the Republican party took something of a hiding in the last election. In the immediate aftermath of the massive systems failure that brought down the Romneybot 2.0, the Republicans took themselves off for some soul-searching as regards the reasons why pieces of the mechanism were strewn all over the landscape. It was determined that the Republicans had massive problems attracting Latino voters, a massive problem attracting young voters, and a gender gap the size of the Dardanelles. The Republicans announced, loudly, that they would work as hard as they could to remedy these situations that, if they weren't addressed, would reduce the dependable Republican electorate to one angry old white man in Council Bluffs. The Republicans, we were told, would "rebrand" themselves for the new era.

Well, what a week it's been for that.

In the Senate, 41 Republican senators voted in favor of a plan that was devised by Senator Charles Grassley on the premise that the poison-pill inserted into the immigration-reform legislation by Senator John Cornyn wasn't poisonous enough. Meanwhile, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, the party's putative leader in the effort to "take back" this issue, announced that he would kill his own bill if any provisions were included that acknowledged the LGBT community. This, of course, is a two-fer. Not only has Rubio found a way to oppose his own bill, but also he's found a way to cement with young voters the party's image as a bunch of geezers caught amid a mass sexual panic over issues on which young voters believe that so many of their elders are plainly nuts.

Meanwhile, for you ladies of the company, the House passed a plainly unconstitutional anti-abortion bill while Congressman Trent Franks of Arizona got stupid in public about rape again. (Wasn't Point No. One on the Republican rebranding on women's issues Don't Be Stupid About Rape In Public?) In Wisconsin, the legislature passed -- and presidentially hopeful goggle-eyed homunculus Scott Walker signed -- a mandatory ultrasound bill along the lines of the one that has done so much for presidentially hopeful transvaginalist Bob McDonnell in Virginia.

Well done, folks. This is like rebranding cholera as dysentery.

It is true that the Republicans want "the issue" more than they want actually to do anything about it. Moreover, the Democrats continue to seem bumfuzzled about how to exploit that gap politically to their own advantage. Moreover, again, the president seems still to value "progress" for its own sake, which is why everyone is so optimistic about meaningful immigration reform without ever mentioning the fact that any attempt at it has to pass the House, where a good part of the Republican caucus would light its own hair on fire before it actually would do anything about it. But if you want to see why the rebranding is never going to work, check out where everyone who is anyone in Republican politics is gathering this week -- at something called the Faith And Freedom Coalition convention in Washington, D.C.

This is where the faith-based camouflage for the oligarchical economic agenda gets designed. It's also where the schizophrenia that is guaranteed to undermine any attempt at rebranding the Republican image gets embedded even more firmly into the party's brain. They can't win with these people -- at least on the national level -- and they can't win without them. There isn't a Republican politician with national ambitions anywhere in the country who could spurn this event. For all the talk about the effectiveness of the "Sister Souljah moment," you won't ever see a "Gary Bauer Moment" from a Republican politician. Ain't happening now. Ain't happening tomorrow.

Take, for example, the speech given by 2012 show-horse Rick Santorum, as recounted by Tiger Beat On The Potomac, in which Santorum -- and have I mentioned recently what a colossal dick this man is? -- kicked the scattered debris of the Romneybot 2.0 all over the lot.

"One after another, they talked about the business they had built. But not a single-not a single -factory worker went out there," Santorum told a few hundred conservative activists at an "after-hours session" of the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington. "Not a single janitor, waitress or person who worked in that company! We didn't care about them. You know what? They built that company too! And we should have had them on that stage."

I remember that night as being the most spectacular exercise in public prevarication it ever has been my misfortune to attend. (That was the night that Oklahoma governor Mary Fallin explained how the federal government had no hand in building Oklahoma, which caused me to flunk Governor Fallin in both history and deportment.) But, no matter, Santorum is arguing for more rebranding -- to case the party of corporate oligarchy, the party that nominated G.I. Luvmoney for president, as the Friend Of The Working Man. This would be silly enough. (The janitors, waitresses, and people who worked in that company helped build it because they were unionized, which I don't believe was Santorum's point here.) But he's doing it in front of an audience that cares more about unborn fetuses than it does about 55-year old unemployed steelworkers, and that cares more about keeping gay people unmarried than it does about keeping straight people employed. Until such time as a national Republican politician feels free to blow these people off, and free to speak candidly about why he's doing it, I will, alas, despair of the rebranding effort.

The tired old "Latino" vote ...........an urban myth............

In fact, had Romney garnered 70% of the hispanic vote in 2012, he still would have lost !

The failure of Romney and the GOP in 2012 was the white independent voter didn't turn out (for either Romney or Obama).

If the GOP wants to win; rebranding Democrat lite isn't the solution.

Only Tea Party conservatism can save the GOP.

FACTS JACK !

Dear Jack ...

How about some links substantiating your facts? Especially the one about the Latino vote ... Especially in the battleground states.

I guess we just need to stop killing white babies...

That didn't take long for your tolling to my avatar..........

Nope. Thats for whom the bell trolls.

LMAO @ lying dipshit

The Case of the Missing White Voters



http://www.realclearpolitics.com/art..._116106-2.html

The problem with the Romney campaign is that it didn't appeal to White voters; who stayed away.

the white vote couldn't make themselves vote for a candy ass puppet and voted for the incumbent regardless of, and partly because of, the constant smear tactics the rightwing fringe groups displayed

They are who they are. Just look at Trendaway and the rest of 'em in here. They're all set in their secure gerrymandered districts, isolated and insulated from reality. It will take longer, but not even that comfy arrangement will last. All that needs to be done is for the real world to show some patience and keep the pressure turned on - they'll crack easily enough. After all, whining doesn't count as really doing anything.

The Case of the Missing White Voters



http://www.realclearpolitics.com/art..._116106-2.html

The problem with the Romney campaign is that it didn't appeal to White voters; who stayed away. Originally Posted by Whirlaway

There were other problems with the Romney campaign. However, your "FACTS JACK" indicate a rise in Latino vote of nearly 2 million. Of course, those "FACTS JACK" are determined by .... drum roll please ... EXIT POLLS.

So your facts aren't really factual jacktual!

Overall turnout in swing states ... like FLORIDA ... weren't at all influenced by the rise in Latino voters, were they? And perhaps there were one or two white people who voted for Obama, too.

I suppose the GOP is right not to care about the majority minority vote. They'll never get it until they they cast out the Teapublicans and force the nuts to form their own party. Obviously can't win the majority among their "target" audience either.

FACT JACK!

Total vote cast in 2012 was less than 2008. Had Romney carried 70% of the latino vote he still would have lost..........Romney lost because he gave no reason for the white vote to support him.

White voters stayed home in record numbers.

Total votes cast in 2012 was less than 2008. Had Romney carried 70% of the latino vote he still would have lost..........Romney lost because he gave no reason for the white vote to support him.

White voters stayed home in record numbers. Originally Posted by Whirlaway

And the problem gets worse for Romney; there were 1.1 million more eligible white voters in 2012 compared to 2008. So Romney's performance in getting his natural constituency to the polls was a miserable failure.

On the other hand; Blacks voted in higher proportion in 2012 than 2008. In fact, for the 1st time in our history, black voter participation exceeded white. It wasn't Hispanics that delivered Obama's 2nd term. It was the record high black turnout combined with record low white voter turnout.

Romney was a miserable candidate. He should have followed his gut instincts and dropped out of the race early on.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013...passes-whites/

And the problem gets worse for Romney; there were 1.1 million more eligible white voters in 2012 compared to 2008. So Romney's performance in getting his natural constitutency to the polls was a miserable failure.

On the other hand; Blacks voted in higher proportion in 2012 than 2008. In fact, for the 1st time in our history, black voter participation exceeded white. It wasn't Hispanics that delivered Obama's 2nd term. It was the record high black turnout combined with record low white voter turnout.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013...passes-whites/ Originally Posted by Whirlaway

how do you know those 1.1 million white voters didn't vote ?

don't tell me, I'll take a guess;

Given your track record, I can understand that you think math/statistics is crystal ball gazing......

Given your track record, I can understand that you think math/statistics is crystal ball gazing...... Originally Posted by Whirlaway

given your track record I can understand that you think Fox is capable of math and reporting factual stats..