You know, I talk all around the country.
I have YET to find one GOP group in any state who says, “Wow, our GOP is really strong.” (Maybe FL excepted). NM supposedly sucks. AZ supposedly sucks. CA supposedly sucks. PA supposedly sucks. VA is supposed to be terrible.
My point is, we hold our own and often win in all these states. So are the parties incompetent, irrelevant, or are they actually doing something right? Cuz they can’t all be terrible.
I personally know a Republican who ran for State Senate in Virginia.
He did not say that his state party sucked. He said that George Soros poured $12 million into his opponent’s campaign and record numbers of Dem voters appeared out of the woodwork.
Here in PA the GOP has a long history of shooting itself in both feet, and in the ass. Bad candidates, bad messaging, bad all around.
“So are the parties incompetent, irrelevant, or are they actually doing something right?”
I don’t think you can compare Republican local offices to Democrat local offices - at the state and local level, party politics is volunteer activism, and Republicans just are not political activists by nature.
It seems like Democrats are naturally better at organizing politically, because they are better at minding other people’s business.
Republicans don’t want to be community organizers, political activists, or social justice warriors...they just want to vote, contribute some $$ and mind their own business - and be left to it.