“I was laughing at some of these numbnuts after the election talking about, ‘Oh, well we need to do a 50-state strategy,’” [Michael] Steele said. “Dude, where were you for 2009 and 2010? That’s exactly what we did.”
With Conservative Spring Break CPAC behind us, the GOP has offered up its campaign autopsy. Dana Milbank calls it the “Big tent, with an asterisk” report, and while Republicans may think the tent is large, the asterisk is significantly larger. Large enough that it might come close to blotting out the sun.
If Only You Were More Like Us….
The 100-page document is chock-full of seemingly wonderful ideas, like
- “reinstitute field finance team structure”
- “develop a surrogate list of women”
- “must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform”
- “need to make sure young people do not see the party as totally intolerant of alternative points of view”
- “comprehensive immigration reform”
- “more acceptance of gay rights”
Yada yada yada….
All it took was for Republican National Committee chairperson Reince Priebus giving a 27-minute speech to blow the whole thing right out of the water. As Milbank observes, neither “immigration” nor “gay” crossed Priebus’ lips at any point. That seems to be the GOP’s biggest problem: they’re more than willing to talk the talk of changing to attract a wider following and broaden their base, but when it comes to walking the walk…. Unless you happen to have a stable full of winged pigs, Republicans are about as likely to change their stripes as your average zebra.
The truth is that Republicans don’t want to change. They think they’re just fine and that their ideas are correct. What they really want is for Americans to change their views and become more accepting of Republican ideas. That attitude was reflected by Priebus’ speech. Ultimately, it’s very likely that exactly nothing will change. Their 100-page “autopsy” will come to be seen as just so much mental masturbation, full of great ideas and suggestions that will never come to fruition…because Republicans don’t see themselves as the problem. They honestly believe WE’RE the ones with the problem and who need to change.
The question is whether Republicans will ever snap out of their arrogance and self-delusion long enough to take action to arrest their free fall. For America’s sake, I certainly hope not.
