An Overview of the RNC Spring Meeting: Failed Ideas

Typical Republican position on gays

On social issues by all reports the spring meeting of the Republican National Committee had more the tenor of a meeting of the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention than the leadership of a political party seeking to lead and govern a modern, industrialized nation.   The event is yet further proof that the GOP is now a de facto sectarian party that is more concerned with enforcing extreme Christianist religious views than in embracing the 21st century and modern knowledge.  It all traces back to the late 1980's when the so-called GOP establishment signaled to Christofacists that they were welcome within the ranks of the party.  Now, the zealots and Bible thumpers have taken over the party despite what country club Republicans like to think.   Capital Hill Blue has a piece that in some excerpts summarizes what the GOP has become:

Homophobia ruled at the spring gathering of the Republican National Committee this week in Los Angeles as the group approved — with no debate — yet another resolution affirming the party’s steadfast opposition to gay marriage.

The resolution flies in the face of a trend of an increasing number of Republicans who are changing their positions on gay marriage but showcases that the party is still controled by a rabid right-wing element.

Conservatives worked up the resolution to try and quiet conservatives who say the party is becoming too mainstream and too in step with a majority of Americans. They want the GOP to keep the party in a bygone era of intolerance that includes homophobia, racism and bigotry

The RNC also approved a resolution that supports “core values” of virtually unlimited gun ownership and use, marriage only between a man and woman, draconian border security and the standard hardcore opposition to abortion.

“The more things change, the more the Republican party stays the same,” longtime GOP activist Josh Samuelson told Capitol Hill Blue. Samuelson said he will be working for Democrats in upcoming elections

"It’s interesting,” says Joanna Kingston, another longtime but now disaffected Republican. “Nowadays, the only thing the Republicans can honor are failed ideas and failed elected officials."

And so the exodus of sane individuals from the GOP continues and the party becomes more of a extremist religious revival meeting than political party.   As my grandchildren grow up, I suspect they will wonder how any of their family members could ever have been Republicans.