Posted on 03/18/2013 9:04:13 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
RNC: Voters see GOP as ‘scary’ and ‘out of touch' By: Maggie Haberman March 18, 2013 07:00 AM EDT
The Republican National Committee concedes in a sprawling report Monday that the GOP is seen as the party of “stuffy old men” and needs to change its ways.
Among the RNC’s proposed fixes: enacting comprehensive immigration reform, addressing middle-class economic anxieties head on and condensing a presidential primary process that saw Mitt Romney get battered for months ahead of the general election.
The committee also proposes major improvements to the party’s voter database and digital technology, which paled next to that of the Democrats and contributed to the party’s losses last year.
The suggestions are among dozens the committee makes in what RNC Chairman Reince Priebus has dubbed an “autopsy” of the party’s 2012 failures and a roadmap forward. Priebus unveiled the 98-page report at a news conference Monday morning at The National Press Club.
“There’s no one reason we lost,” Priebus said. “Our message was weak; our ground game was insufficient; we weren’t inclusive; we were behind in both data and digital; our primary and debate process needed improvement. … So, there’s no one solution: There’s a long list of them.”
The report devotes many pages to the need to better connect with minority, female and young voters. Comprehensive immigration reform is a critical first step, it says.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Politico....who’d a thunk?
yeah- and that’s among registered Republican rank and file voters.
Do they even need to ask what democrat voters think of Republicans?
Reince who ?
What do people see Democrats as?
Anti-family race-baiters?
Inept leadership comes to my mind.
I see them more as spineless and Politically Correct.
I’m a conservative, and I see the Republican Party as scary and out of touch.
Don’t you think it’s scary and out of touch to field candidates like Chris Christie and Jeb Bush for POTUS?
Don’t you think it’s scary and out of touch to continue to fund 0bungo-care?
Don’t you think it’s scary and out of touch to even consider any of the “gun control” measures being introduced by the drooling and foaming anti-gun zealots?
I’m OK with comprehensive immigration reform as long as step one is deport them all and their anchor brats too!
1. If we want ethnic minority voters to support Republicans, we have to engage them, and show our sincerity.
Translation: Play identity politics and promise to provide even more government benefits than the Dems.
2. As stated above, 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. If we do not, our Party’s appeal will continue to shrink to its core constituencies only. We also believe that comprehensive immigration reform is consistent with Republican economic policies that promote job growth and opportunity for all.
Translation: Accept and champion amnesty. Who cares if it takes jobs from Americans, depresses wages, and adds to the Dem voting rolls so they can be the permanent majority party.
3. When it comes to social issues, the Party must in fact and deed be inclusive and welcoming. If we are not, we will limit our ability to attract young people and others, including many women, who agree with us on some but not all issues.
Translation: Accept gay marriage and pro-choice
Dang, you beat me to it.
NEWSFLASH....
We lost the culture wars on this a LONG time ago, and the mainstream media reinforces the meme, daily.
In one night on TV, I watched a CSI that said the militia murder suspect “Might as well have been wearing a Tom Delay T-Shirt”, a movie that had the EVIL WALL STREET REPUBLICAN banker (most bankers are DEMS) who wanted to pollute the world for money, and an evil anti-gay preacher, who turned out to be child molesting gay himself.
The “Evil Republican!” meme is reinforced countless times, every single day to the sheeple, and the propaganda WORKS, folks.
Of course people see the party as scary and out of touch. That is what they hear from the lame stream media, and the Republicans are now into their 25th year of doing and saying nothing to counter the media’s lies.
Duh.
Hmmm, I think of them as gutless, self-serving, clueless, Constitutionally ignorant morons, myself.
These are the main memes pimped by the Mostly-Dem run major media.
The sheep see it on TV every night, they see it in the cell phone news feeds, they hear it on the radio, they get it over and over again on the Twitter feed.
Being right means NOTHING if you can’t get your message out over the din.
I find contemporary culture and society pretty scary. Especially here in CA. People covered from head to toe with ghastly tattooes and piercings. Illegal immigration out of control. Gang graffiti all over the place. People wearing their trousers half way down their ass in public. Marijuana dispensaries all over the place. People hawking pot on the Venice boardwalk. I could go one. I want nothing to do with it. This country is morally and fiscally bankrupt. We are no longer an exceptional nation anymore. We are simply following Europe’s path towards bankruptcy and irrelevancy.
If the RINOs don’t address the following issues BEFORE the 2014 election, then they’re doomed:
1. Voter fraud. It’s got to be stopped. There’s no way that any Republican can win if 148% of the voters vote in precincts like in Wood County, Ohio or 108% in Cuyahoga County. Voter ID absolutely must be in place, or they rest is worthless.
2. Stop the Democrats from nominating our candidates by voting in our primaries . . . or else we get Romney-type candidates and the Democrats laugh at our stupidity.
3. Get “kick your ass” candidates like Rand, Palin, and stop letting the media frame them as idiots.
4. Refuse to have any part in any “debates” as long as there’s no strong conservative person on the panel. On the national level in 2016, this has got to be a must. NO DEBATES whatsoever, unless there’s an equal number of panelists from conservative news.
5. Nominate conservative candidates and cut the crap about appeasing the middle. The middle is a bunch of morons and certainly is not a majority.
When your enemy defines you, this happens.
LOL! Cue Captain Obvious!
Liberal voters see the GOP as ‘scary’ and ‘out of touch' because they are not progressive enough, and conservatives see the GOP as ‘scary’ and ‘out of touch' because they are too progressive.
WHY do these idiots think we've been screeching about the *mushy middle* for YEARS!
That’s why I’m not very optimistic about the future of the US at least in my lifetime (20 yrs or so).
California has always been a bellwether for the country as a whole 10-15 yrs out. Maybe that’s moved faster now that we have saturation media / internet, but the principle will still be the same.
that’s because it IS scary and out of touch. Boehner should be ridden out of town on a rail.
The real problem is that an increasing share of the population doesn’t buy the GOP message. Limited government, low taxes, and individual liberty doesn’t resonate in a culture of dependency on government. Most Americans want all the benefits the welfare state has to offer, but they are unwilling to pay for it. Something has to give since we are on an unsustainable path.
That's the way I read it, too. I'm waiting for an opportune time to change my party affiliation from Republican to Independant.
Sad to watch some of our brightest stars bang thier heads against the brick wall of the RINO Machine.
The GOP is “out of touch”. It’s not out of touch in the way Politico thinks, but it is out of touch.
Politico is Monkey Butt Crap!
You make good points, but to me the election was decided by the Dems purchasing it with entitlements. That’s how Baraq was able to pull off a win with a terrible economy.
Only when the inevitable financial implosion hits and the progressives can’t hand out +40 cents in gravy for each buck coming in will the equation change.
GOP=RINOs Only
I totally agree . . . we have deadbeats out there . . . but the other points could trump all these deadbeats if, somehow, we were able to solve these huge problems.
The Republicans LET their enemy define them....They are absolutely politically tone deaf.
When you depend on Democrat media organs to get your message out, you are doomed right from the start. When you allow Democrat “journalists” to define you, you are doomed.
And when you pick candidates who don’t believe in your defining principles, or consider them as negotiating ploys and bargaining chips, you are also doomed right from the start.
GOP=NMP - Not My Party....anymore.
Running liberal squish retards, one after another since 1988, losing four out of six presidential races, and barely squeaking out wins in the other two, against the weakest, stupidest, most vile Democrat candidates in the history of the USA, -- maybe its time to try something that worked in 1980 and 1984. Dipwads!!!
Which TV show has been getting blockbuster ratings the past several Sundays? Hint, it is not CSI.
The Establishment Elites of the GOP are scary and out of touch.
This is a rock solid fact of life.
As I’ve said before, “THEY LIVE, and we’re the only ones wearing the Sunglasses”.
No, Obama won it because of changing demographics fueled by immigration and minority birth rates. The Dems received 95% of the black vote, 73% of the Asian vote, and 71% of the Hispanic vote. Romney won 59% of the non-Hispanic white vote including those aged 18-29. In other times 59% would have assured victory.
In 1970 89% of the electorate were non-Hispanic whites. Today it is 66% and that will decline to 50% by 2042. By 2019 half of the children 18 and under will be minorities as defined by the USG. Each year that passes brings a new cohort of 18 year old voters comprised more and more of minorities.
Demography is destiny. We have reached a tipping point. It has been in the works since the 1965 Immigration Act.
The fact that Romney is a spineless RINO jellyfish, indistinguishable on paper from any liberal Democrat, was the Cause. The "hate crap" that ensued on our side was the Effect.
When and if our side finally nominates a real conservative, you'll see the sort of landslide support that topples Commie/Democrat regimes.
"We lost" You say that as if you and the rest of the local rank-n-file Republicans are part of the GOPe that run the Party. The GOP doesn't consider the rubes to be part of their Party. The rubes are there to blindly vote for what ever mushy socialist-lite candidate the Party deigns to run without question.
And Romney was not the lesser of two evils. Saying that makes it seem that there is a choice between the two. He was the equal of two evils because they were working together. Romney did everything he could to make sure Barry won, short out outright endorsing him. Romney's entire campaign, after he eliminated the real opposition candidates, was a total joke. There is no way anyone could lose to a talentless, worthless, on-the-down-low Marxists nobody like Barry Soetoro unless it was deliberate.
“condensing a presidential primary process”
Translation: “We’re not going to give you time to vet the limp candidate we pick for you”
““There’s no one reason we lost,” Priebus said. “”
BS.....NOT being conservative is why ya lost!
This smells like Grover Norquist/Karl Rove/CPAC/ACU to me.
Good lord
The RNC is so clueless. Why can’t they just shup up and plot to win? Instead they have to go around pretending they are now going to get hip. It is so embarassing.
I’m the same way. I used to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek, talking about the country reaching its “end days,” and how many actual years it might have left. But after the 2012 election, I’ve noticed so many of my rather ‘average joe’ GOP-voting friends and relatives basically say the same things, and they are dead serious. Some of them because of the “takers overwhelming makers” argument, some because of the insane federal debt, and some (actually quite a lot) because of the moral degeneracy as represented by things like homo marriage.
It’s really an amazing little sea-change, actually hearing so many people tell me “the country is over.” People I never would have imagined this coming from. Not in their nature. And that’s not even going into the other topic of how these once “rah-rah-Republicans” are now so totally alienated from their Party.
If we ever had an honest, no-nonsense, courageous conservative as our nominee, that circular firing squad wouldn't amount to more than a few lone voices on the far extremity of the conservative voter base.
Elevating squish liberals to the Republican nominee position, guarantees widespread infighting, disillusionment, circular firing squads, and lost presidential elections for our side.
Amen
I agree with the voters. They are scary. The leadership of the Republican party has shown no desire to do anything but perpetuate and expand the power of the federal government.
100% of the Democrats about about 70% of the Republicans are either dead-set against the constitution and individual liberty or at best condone the status quo.
That’s pretty scary. So scary that many, even here at FR, can’t bring themselves to accept it. Look at the people whining about conservatives not supporting Romney or some other such bunk in this very thread for a prime example.
Folks like us have preached this here for over a decade
Amazing how many here are still so daft about it
Talking openly like this was forbidden once you know
This is sort of the central article of faith of FR, but I assure you, it's wrong and based on wishful thinking.
A "real conservative" (as defined by the majority of FR) will lose fare worse than Romney did. Not understanding that is a symptom of being out of touch with a variety of people across the political spectrum in a variety of geographic settings.
And spare me the Reagan stuff. First, he wasn't nearly the "true conservative" that people have sort of invented memories of.
Second, key aspects of how he built his coalition (anti-Communism, "tough on crime") simply don't matter anymore.
The Soviet Union is gone - the "tough on crime" thing is a bit different. There's been a small uptick in violent crime the past couple of years, of course, but crime has still declined steeply from the beginning of the Clinton Administration till today. At the time Reagan was elected, crime was rampant, and more importantly, it was spread more widely - the white middle class had far more fear of crime than they do today (which is now even more concentrated in minority neighborhoods and is mostly minority-on-minority.) Sure, there are lurid stories posted of awful crimes on FR all the time, but the white middle class isn't nearly as terrified of crime as they were in the 1980s - in the 1980s, I had various relatives and myself burglarized, but I literally don't know a single person that's been the victim of a single crime in the past decade.
The soccer mom types in the 1980s who may have voted Republican out of fear for their own and their children's safety are now going Democratic because of gay rights and abortion.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.