Jon Huntsman to GOP: Avoid "Fringe Issues"

Personally, I continue to believe that if any of the original pack of GOP presidential nomination contestants might have been able to defeat Barack Obama it is Jon Huntsman.  The problem, of course was that Huntsman wasn't crazy or extreme enough to attract the increasingly deranged and theocratic GOP base.  Like Bruce Bartlett and some other rational conservatives who have been ridden out of the GOP on a rail, Huntsman seems to be having some saying "I told you so."  In his latest salvo, Huntsman tells the GOP to avoid "fringe issues."  The problem is that the entire GOP base is now made up of a faction of fringe issue extremists: Christofascists, anti-abortion extremists, anti-tax maniacs, and last but not least the white supremacists.   Thus, Huntsman's recommendation is largely impossible to implement.   Here are highlights from Politico on Huntsman's advice to the GOP:

Jon Huntsman said Friday that if the GOP can stay away from “fringe issues” and instead focuses on bread-and-butter Republican principles, the party will be better for it.

“If we stick to a mantra that says strong individual liberty and economic freedom and a right-sized government, that’s always going to be relevant for the American people based on our constitutional government,” the former Utah governor and presidential hopeful said on CNN’s “Starting Point.” “But we kind of drift in areas where we take on fringe issues, and it gets us stuck in the alleyways of life that take our focus away from what is really important for the American people, and that is individual freedom and that is getting the budgets balanced so people can get on with their lives.”

Huntsman praised the soul-searching the GOP has undertaken since it’s Nov. 6 losses, but added that ultimately, the party needs a simplified “mission statement.”

“We have some structural issues,” he said. “I think the deliberation about the Republican Party that we’re having is a very healthy thing. And if we don’t wind up at the end of the exercise with a mission statement that is one sentence long, then we’re toast. That one statement ought to be, ‘Balance the budgets and get out of people’s lives.’

“So what did the two most important people in this country sit down and talk about yesterday at lunch?” Huntsman said, referencing President Barack Obama’s Thursday meeting with GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. “When everything else is done, and the election is wrapped up, it isn’t about social issues. It isn’t about the fringe issues. They sat down and talked about America’s leadership in the world. So at the end of the day, that’s what matters most, to Republicans, and to Democrats. How do you get to where we need to be?”

Of course, jettisoning social issues would drive the Christofascists berserk.  Let's be candid, the far right wants to interfere in everyone's life and dictate what they can believe, how they can or cannot control their own bodies and who they can love.  By all appearances, the Christofascists still have gotten the message that the larger public does NOT want what the Christofascists are selling.