Michael O’Brien of NBC News has a useful breakdown of the details in GOP chairman Reince Priebus’s 100-page report, the “Growth and Opportunity Project.” The report is part analysis of why the Republicans did poorly in the 2012 election cycle and part blueprint for how they can make a comeback.
My immediate reaction is that it is a declaration of war by the Republican establishment on the party’s base. You can see this in several distinct elements of the report. On the policy front, the report is explicit about comprehensive immigration reform.
“We are not a policy committee, but among the steps Republicans take in the Hispanic community and beyond, we must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform,” the report says, nodding at other points to the bipartisan reform efforts currently before Congress. “If we do not, our Party’s appeal will continue to shrink to its core constituencies only.”
Needless to say, the base of the party to inalterably opposed to comprehensive immigration reform. Things are no better when it comes to gay rights.
The report also notes a growing generational divide on the issue of gay rights, calling the issue a “gateway” for young voters deciding whether to align with the GOP.
It doesn’t appear that the report touches more broadly on sexual issues, although that is probably just a bridge too far. The report also pits the establishment against the base by complaining about third-party groups who enforce “purity,” which is a clear shot at the Club for Growth. The report recognizes the danger of Super PACs that blast the eventual nominee in the primary season.
As Mr. O’Brien points out, the all-out assault on political consultants at last week’s CPAC conference anticipated this RNC report.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin encapsulated the sentiment during her speech on Saturday before the Conservative Political Action Conference.
“Now is the time to furlough the consultants, and tune out the pollsters, send the focus groups home, and toss the political scripts,” she said, “because if we truly know what we believe, we don’t need professionals to tell us.”
Palin’s sentiment is perfectly suited to ensure that the “Party’s appeal will continue to shrink to its core constituencies only.” Will the base follow Palin’s path, or the path laid out by Priebus?
Immigration reform is going to be a divisive and losing issue for the GOP for some time to come.
Even if they put Rubio out in front, all the Dems have to do is say:
“How about this for a plan? We give EVERYONE the same deal we give the CUBANS?”
Then just stand back and watch.
Ooh, I like that.
That study actually has some really good ideas in it. What are the chances the structural changes can get implementation by the likes of Reince? My first instinct was: Good luck with finding a good IT person to run your data works.
Go Sarah!! Never thought I would root for her to be successful in driving the GOP agenda.
“Will the base follow Palin’s path, or the path laid out by Priebus?”
This is what is called a “rhetorical question”, since the answer is already known.
The most that can be said is that they may attract some moderates and independents back into the fold.
I think there’s going to be some exceptionally bitter primarying from here on. The establishment will pour tons of money into it and will probably still lose most of them.
Take a look at Section 12 “Groupthink is a Loser”.
Assuming the report was vetted by GOP leadership prior to its release, I think this section waves a white flag to Palin & Co. There will be no war, there will be no changes.
That section has a powerful heading but its content is anemic. The section blithely refers to “third party” purity groups when it’s really talking about the new GOP base and its strongest primary voters. And it only used Noonan and Scarborough to make the point…and dedicates only one paragraph and one very tepid recommendation that amounts to “Let’s all just get along.”
That section seems to intend to quarantine itself from “purity group” anger by totally relying on Noonan for this criticism. As though she’s and Scarborough are the only people talking about this problem.
Talk about shying away from confrontation. I wouldn’t be surprised if the original version of that section was much longer and broader but was weakened and diluted by Priebus and friends. Failure to address this critical matter dooms the entire effort to failure.
The Republican establishment has no place to go, and I don’t the impression that anyone who would be considered “establishment” has any fight in them to take on the wacky wing of their party that is controlling the agenda. They will continue to be the lap dog of the Tea Party and will not be rocking the boat any time in the near future, if ever.
This is nothing less than a crusade for the Tea Party. It is becoming more apparent every day that in the Tea Party mind, there are only two possible outcomes on any issue. Either they get their way, 100%, or they do everything within their power to burn down the house.
Priebus says, “”Successful parties learn and grow, and you do the best learning after you lose” Learning and growing is not exactly a feature of the Tea Party mind. Their absolutist mentality abhors anything resembling compromise. And in order to “learn after you lose”, you have to be able to undertake critical self evaluations, recognize your weak points, and work to resolve them. I find it impossible to picture the Trump and Palin set doing anything of the sort. Without waging internal war, the establishment Republicans will only be allowed to do what their wacky extremists allow. And that will only amount to window dressing. There will, most certainly, be no substantive structural changes allowed. To the people running the show right now, changes are for pussies and losers.
It’s the bloody Scots-Irish! Probably the most illuminating book of US history that I’ve read was Albion’s Seed. Amazing how you can trace this stuff straight back to the beginning. You just have to look at the different reasons people had for coming to America. We hear most about religious liberty, but that was just the Puritans and the Quakers. The settlers of Virginia were mostly younger sons of wealthy families who wanted to have their own estates.
And the people who settled the back country came over because they were barbarians, and the English were starting to bring order to the borderlands. So by coming to American and settling in the back country they were able to remain barbarians for a lot longer than they could have back home. In fact, they’ve been able to remain barbarians for a very long time indeed. And now the GOP is stuck with them.
Would I be totally wrong to have a sense that the GOP also has a strong Germanic element – a Germanic element which is in denial or never learned the lessons of fascism and Nazism? Authoritarianism, racial supremacist, and only a tactical support for liberal democracy seem to be strands that come up again and again – to a degree you would never find in Germans actually living in Germany.
Just for the record, “the people who settled the back country came over because they were barbarians, and the English were starting to bring order to the borderlands” is very much your interpretation.
Note the implicit assumption behind the notion that “the English were starting to bring order to the borderlands” which neatly justifies several hundred years of English imperial conquest from the British Isles to the rest of the world.
Oh, absolutely. I’m not trying to justify anything here.
Read this part over at Benen:
Absolutely astounding to me that they would have the brass cajones to put that in there…this from the party that proudly shits in people’s mouths and then indignantly blames them for having bad breath.
Wow, that is astounding. It’s heresy.
Don’t be astounded. The Republican establishment are political animals. They’ll adopt any position that will lead them to power. The Tea Party will flip too, but they’ll require some kind of explanation, some new way of looking at things. (That’s the role of people like Glen Beck).
As soon as we become surprised by some incoherent position, we lose. It allows us to be flanked from our left, with Republicans attacking us with slogans like “Hands off our Medicare”. They could easily appeal to their libertarian proclivities to rally around “No more corporate welfare” and “More government transparency”. The most dangerous is Social Security, because once they can convince the American public not to trust Democrats with it, they can extend that to not trusting the government with it, and then it’s just one more step to privatizing it. At the least, it ensures a divided government.
Anyway, the division between the Republican establishment and the crazy base is hopeful for us, but not necessarily catastrophic for them. Republicans were a destroyed brand in 2008 and came roaring back in 2010. People decided not to attribute their faults to the party per se but to individuals; Democrats helped them do this. There’s a parabolic curve here: too little distance and the establishment gets tarnished with the crazy; too much and it rends the party. They’re looking for the sweet spot.
“Will the base follow Palin’s path, or the path laid out by Priebus?”
…Dude, did you really ask this question?