The battering that Republican candidates suffered in 2012 — particularly among women and minorities — seems finally to have worked its way into the party’s cerebral cortex. For weeks, party leaders like Eric Cantor have talked about broadening the party’s appeal, and on Monday, Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, unveiled a lengthy report that took the party to task for alienating large segments of the public.
The Washington wing of the Republican party is “increasingly marginalizing itself,” the report says, making it harder to win future presidential races. As the party drives around in “an ideological cul-de-sac,” its public reputation has hit record lows. “We have become expert in how to provide ideological reinforcement to like-minded people,” the report says, “but devastatingly we have lost the ability to be persuasive with or welcoming to those who do not agree with us on every issue.”
This is an encouragingly candid self-assessment on the part of Republican leaders and could be the beginning of the party’s return to the mainstream. Unfortunately, the report seems overly focused on the mechanics of how Republicans should focus their message, conveniently ignoring what that message should be. And for years, the party’s message has been the opposite of inclusion, driving away the very voters the report seeks to attract.
The report, for example, says that Republicans have “a lot in common” with African-Americans, and should hire more black communications directors and make more of an effort to draw black voters. It doesn’t mention, however, that Republican lawmakers across the country have avidly passed laws that make it harder for blacks and other minorities to vote, as part of an effort to reduce the turnout of Democrats. Repudiating these measures should be high on the list of any party that claims to be interested in “outreach” to minorities.
It talks about “developing a forward-leaning vision for voting Republican that appeals to women,” without ever using the words “abortion” or “birth control” or even hinting that the party’s policies on these issues have repelled women by the millions.
Most significant, the report shows no recognition that the Republican goals of shrinking government and lowering taxes for the rich — which have turned particularly malicious during the Tea Party era — have proved brutally unpopular at a time when the recession left more people in need of government assistance than ever. The party’s job, it says, “is to champion private growth so people will not turn to the government in the first place,” but the party has never been able to demonstrate how its trickle-down agenda of cutting budgets and taxes, embodied by the new Paul Ryan House budget, would do that.
The report should be commended for urging more tolerant policies on immigration and gay issues (though it is hardly specific). But the party will have to move much farther from its extremist tendencies if it hopes to expand its appeal in the long term.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/20/o...ot-just-the-message.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0
The Washington wing of the Republican party is “increasingly marginalizing itself,” the report says, making it harder to win future presidential races. As the party drives around in “an ideological cul-de-sac,” its public reputation has hit record lows. “We have become expert in how to provide ideological reinforcement to like-minded people,” the report says, “but devastatingly we have lost the ability to be persuasive with or welcoming to those who do not agree with us on every issue.”
This is an encouragingly candid self-assessment on the part of Republican leaders and could be the beginning of the party’s return to the mainstream. Unfortunately, the report seems overly focused on the mechanics of how Republicans should focus their message, conveniently ignoring what that message should be. And for years, the party’s message has been the opposite of inclusion, driving away the very voters the report seeks to attract.
The report, for example, says that Republicans have “a lot in common” with African-Americans, and should hire more black communications directors and make more of an effort to draw black voters. It doesn’t mention, however, that Republican lawmakers across the country have avidly passed laws that make it harder for blacks and other minorities to vote, as part of an effort to reduce the turnout of Democrats. Repudiating these measures should be high on the list of any party that claims to be interested in “outreach” to minorities.
It talks about “developing a forward-leaning vision for voting Republican that appeals to women,” without ever using the words “abortion” or “birth control” or even hinting that the party’s policies on these issues have repelled women by the millions.
Most significant, the report shows no recognition that the Republican goals of shrinking government and lowering taxes for the rich — which have turned particularly malicious during the Tea Party era — have proved brutally unpopular at a time when the recession left more people in need of government assistance than ever. The party’s job, it says, “is to champion private growth so people will not turn to the government in the first place,” but the party has never been able to demonstrate how its trickle-down agenda of cutting budgets and taxes, embodied by the new Paul Ryan House budget, would do that.
The report should be commended for urging more tolerant policies on immigration and gay issues (though it is hardly specific). But the party will have to move much farther from its extremist tendencies if it hopes to expand its appeal in the long term.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/20/o...ot-just-the-message.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0
