Democrats play to win, republicans don’t even dress for the game. The jihadist attacks in Boston at this point in time gave the right an ample supply of ammunition to destroy amnesty and gun control. They have done nothing. Nothing. Calling them incompetent just does not cover it. They are eunuchs with tiny brains.
I have come to the conclusion that the Republican party is complicit. The level of "incompetence" is, as you observe, just staggering -- then there is their actions vs words(party-planks) to consider: it would not be untrue to say that the Republican Party, in the last 16-years, has done nothing to further its stated goals.