The message coming from the 2013 rnc Winter meeting in Charlotte this week is that substantive policy changes are not the answer to garner support from voters because repugican leaders insist there was nothing wrong with their message that lost them the 2012 election, it was how and who delivered the messages of doom. The consensus among repugican leaders is that Americans want to be assaulted by repugicans; they just want them to smile as they implement Draconian spending cuts, lower taxes for the rich, anti-women legislation, and religious edicts straight out of the Old Testament. The repugican leadership is so out of touch with the American people, and so stuck on their ideologically backward agenda, that one member said “We can stand by our timeless principles and articulate them in ways that are modern, relevant to our time and relatable to the majority of voters.” They then unanimously approved a resolution by voice vote calling on Congress to defund Planned Parenthood despite a majority of Americans oppose defunding the organization.
There are myriad problems endemic to repugican policies, but primarily they do not comprehend that their agenda and policies are contrary to the will of the people, and they are only interested in serving voters who agree with their platform. New Hampshire chairman Wayne MacDonald said party leaders need to be firm and assertive without being mean-spirited, and asserted that no-one thinks the repugican cabal has to change any platform planks because “this party wants to serve everybody that believes in our principles,” and it informs what pundits and political observers have known for some time; repugicans do not want, or intend, to serve all Americans; only those who agree with their policies.
One of the rnc winter meetings’ attendees, who recently stole the North Carolina Governorship, Pat McCrory, believes the cabal must reorient itself away from Washington and focus on experimenting with new policy approaches in the states, and repugicans have gone beyond the experimental stage. In two states, Kansas and Louisiana, the repugican governors proposed raising taxes on the poor while cutting taxes for the rich that repugicans in Congress like Mitch McConnell and Eric Cantor have proposed over the course of the past year that certainly did not help repugicans in the last election. During the 2012 election, President Obama ran on raising taxes on the rich and giving 98% of Americans a tax cut, and yet according to repugicans, they “have the right policy but do a terrible job conveying it,” so their tactic to better transmit their “tax-the-poor” policy is implementing it in the states, with a smile, so the public will accept them with open arms.
One of the subjects discussed at the rnc meeting was reaching out to minorities and young people in a more “friendly” way, and rnc chairman, Reince Priebus said, “When it comes to young people, when it comes to African-Americans and Hispanics, we really have done an incredible job over the last few years,” and “actually our principles are more conducive to minorities than the Democrats.” However, the results of the election told a different story as African Americans, young people, and Hispanics overwhelmingly supported the President and Democrats, and to correct that, repugicans intend on “communicating with them in the proper forums, and explaining the values to them.” It may prove difficult to explain to minorities, young people, and any American that slashing safety nets, education funding, and raising their taxes to benefit corporations and the wealthy, is good for the people, and certainly not the values most Americans hold regardless if they are minorities, young, or old.
The repugicans in Congress and states did not need the rnc to confirm their dystopian policies and extremist agenda is “just fine” and what the people really want. The repugicans started off the 113th Congress with a personhood bill to ban contraception, competing bills to defund Planned Parenthood, and some of the harshest anti-abortion bills that are all the rage in repugican-controlled states in spite of a poll signifying support for keeping Roe v. Wade’s access to legal abortion in place; no amount of “smiling” will change public opinion.
If the rnc is dysfunctional enough to think Americans will embrace their extreme positions on raising taxes on the poor, slashing social safety nets, rigging elections, and assaulting Social Security and Medicare just because they smile as they wreak havoc on the people, they are in greater danger of self-annihilation than they could possibly imagine. That repugicans even entertain the notion that explaining their dangerous ideology with a friendly demeanor will sway voters to embrace fascism, theocracy, and Draconian austerity is another indication the repugican cabal will forge ahead at their peril, and smile their way into political oblivion.
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