The GOP's Inability to Change Its "Messaging"

The Republican National Committee recently issued a report that was a post mortem on the GOP's disastrous 2012 election cycle.  One of the key findings was that the party was killing its future through its negativity and inability to attract younger voters and Latinos.   As a result, the report said the party need to greatly improve its messaging to make itself more welcoming to those other than the party 's core base of angry white Christofascists.  So what does GOP Rep. Don Young (Alaska) do?  He calls Latinos "wetbacks." Now that will certainly help endear the GOP with Hispanic voters, won't it?  Of course, it's not just Hispanics that are routinely offended by GOP racists and bigots.  Blacks, gays and women likewise are routinely trashed and denigrated.  An article in the Washington Post looks at the GOP's inability to grasp the fact that racist remarks and off the charts homophobia do not help broaden the GOP tent.  Here are highlights:

For a Republican Party embarked on a mission of modernization, an ethnic slur uttered by a senior House Republican this week offered an unwelcome reminder of the past.  Rep. Don Young (Alaska) used a derogatory term for Latinos in a radio interview Thursday, less than two weeks after the Republican National Committee issued a post-election report that called for broadening the party’s tent.

The comment, coupled with an anti-gay remark that an RNC official posted on his Facebook page this week, highlighted the challenge Republicans face in their nascent effort to woo a more diverse cross section of America as they grapple with issues including immigration reform and same-sex marriage.

“We used to hire 50 or 60 wetbacks and — to pick tomatoes,” Young said in the interview with KRBD. “You know, it takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine.”

Republican consultant John Weaver said the comment “hurts us,” describing Young as “a dinosaur on the bridge of political insanity and irrelevance.”  “Republicans like him will soon be extinct, and that’s a good thing for the GOP,” Weaver said. “But in the meantime, when they make these remarks, it makes it harder for those of us who are trying to grow the base of our party.”

Earlier in the week, an RNC official from Michigan argued that being gay is an unhealthy lifestyle — posting an article to his Facebook page that labeled homosexuality as “filthy.” The RNC committeeman, Dave Agema, declined to take down the post.

GOP leaders were quick to denounce both Agema and Young, a 21-term House member who has long had rocky relations with the Republican establishment.  RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, who last week launched a GOP effort to reach out to minority communities, issued a statement Friday saying, “The words used by Representative Young emphatically do not represent the beliefs of the Republican Party.” 

On Thursday, Priebus also criticized Agema, saying that “all human beings deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.”  House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement Friday that Young’s remarks “are offensive and beneath the dignity of the office he holds. I don’t care why he said it. There’s no excuse and it warrants an immediate apology.”

Message to the GOP: until the Christofascists and  white supremacists - who the leadership has pandered to in the past - are driven from the GOP, things are not going to get better.