GOP Growth and Opportunity Project: Report Proves Republicans Are Divided
The Grand Old Party is bamboozled. It might be remnants of post-traumatic stress disorder caused by a brutal November election or a split in political ideologies, but two divergent Republican Parties are emerging – and the Republican National Committee isn’t pleased.
Reince Priebus and five veteran GOP operatives compiled a scathing 100-page report, chastising Republicans for their out-of-touch marketing and encouraging a complete repackaging of social and fiscal ideals. The report begins with, "The G.O.P. today is a tale of two parties. One of them, the gubernatorial wing, is growing and successful. The other, the federal wing, is increasingly marginalizing itself."
The “Growth and Opportunity Project” chides Republican lawmakers for not acknowledging the shifting voting demographics and appealing to this new crop of minorities, women and millennials.
The report outlines: "America is changing demographically, and unless Republicans are able to grow our appeal the way GOP governors have done, the changes tilt the playing field even more in the Democratic direction.
"In 1980, exit polls tell us that the electorate was 88% white. In 2012, it was 72% white.
"Hispanics made up 7% of the electorate in 2000, 8% in 2004, 9% in 2008, and 10% in 2012. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, in 2050, whites will be 47 percent of the country while Hispanics will grow to 29 percent and Asians to 9 percent.
"If we want ethnic minority voters to support Republicans, we have to engage them and show our sincerity," the report reads.
The RNC’s report also tells the GOP what the nation already realizes: Republicans are narrow-minded and representative of wealthy, stuffy, in-every-woman’s-womb men.
"Public perception of the party is at record lows," the report says. "Young voters are increasingly rolling their eyes at what the party represents, and many minorities wrongly think that Republicans do not like them or want them in the country. When someone rolls their eyes at us, they are not likely to open their ears to us."
Unless something changes, the report says, "it will be increasingly difficult for Republicans to win another presidential election in the near future."
The rebranding theories are not aligning with the praxis of the GOP’s leaders.
Exhibit A: CPAC was an ideal platform to debut a defeated, but rejuvenated GOP, but instead, Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin and their crew focused less on longevity and national outreach and more on feeding ideologues nonsense about Big Gulps and subverted equality. All of the potential benefits were outweighed by explosive controversy, like the extension of an invite to Donald Trump and not Gov. Chris Christie, one of the most popular state leaders in the county. Or North Carolinian Scott Terry insinuating oppressed minorities should’ve been appreciative of slavery because it fed and housed us.
Exhibit B: House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has refused to evolve on the issue of same-sex marriage rights. He told ABC’s This Week he would never approve of gay marriage, even if his son identified as homosexual.
Exhibit C: The North Dakota senate, which is predominantly Republican, passed the strictest abortion ban in the nation last week.
Verdict: Mainstream Republicans are still in our wombs, marriages and hard-fought civil rights laws. GOP leaders learned nothing about the power of minorities, women and Generation Y, even after a severe knockout in the November elections.
Priebus is still appealing the conviction. The RNC reports’ solution is leaning toward inclusiveness on all social issues, shortening primaries, ousting Tea Party and insurgent candidates and electing politicians with wide-appeal and lessening the amount spent on TV advertising. This method could be effective, but it’s doomed if the GOP keeps focusing on non-existent criminalities (hello birthers) instead of re-examining core principles.
