The GOP's Future Shock

The Supreme Court rulings this week upholding Obamacare, the Fair Housing Act and, most of all, the marriage ruling, all demonstrate how the Republican Party is increasingly out of step - and wholly out of touch with - the rapid changes occurring in American society.  While the GOP and its shrinking base continue to seek to drag the country back to the 1950's on social and racial issues and to the Gilded Age economically, the majority of Americans are moving on into the 21st century and a different America.  I continue to be dumbstruck by the GOP's apparent desire to engage in a slow form of suicide.  Spittle flecked reactions to the marriage ruling will likely only accelerate the exodus of Millennials from the GOP.  A piece in Politico looks at the GOP's inability to change in the face of a new reality.  Here are excerpts:

In a week of painstakingly drafted Supreme Court decisions, no literary effort was crafted more gingerly than Jeb Bush’s statement following the high court’s 5-to-4 endorsement of same-sex marriage rights on Friday.

First, the former Florida governor paid homage to his beliefs and to evangelical political orthodoxy. “Guided by my faith, I believe in traditional marriage,” he wrote.

Then, he quickly pivoted to the more popular political center: “I also believe that we should love our neighbor and respect others, including those making lifetime commitments. In a country as diverse as ours, good people who have opposing views should be able to live side by side.”

[I]t revealed a maneuvering, modern conservative worried about his party being caught on the wrong side of history – whatever his personal view of the issue.

Democrats, and many other Americans of varying political stripes enjoyed a feel-good national moment, but the GOP wasn’t invited to the party – Republicans were worrying about how to keep from being trampled by the accelerating gallop of 21st-century social change.

“In the state of Nevada, you can get married to a hooker who you met at the bar 30 minutes after meeting her with a blood alcohol level of 3.2 by an Elvis at a drive-through,” said Steve Schmidt, who managed the 2008 presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain. “At the end of the day, it’s an untenable position to be against ultimately millions of actual Americans’ marriages and commitments.”

Democrats are delighted at the growing roster of issues pulling the GOP backward through time. Last week, Southern Republicans were stunned by the wave of public, bipartisan sentiment against state-sanctioned displays of the Confederate flag in the wake of the Charleston massacre. After a stumbling start, local Republicans acted with deliberate speed, and not just in South Carolina: Alabama’s Robert Bentley, one of the country’s most conservative governors, ordered the rebel battle flag lowered over the capitol in Montgomery, where the civil war was declared and George Wallace delivered his “segregation forever” speech.”

Still, many standard-issue Republican positions, though they remain regional political assets in the South and parts of the Midwest, are underwater: The GOP’s blanket opposition to minimum-wage hikes, a more open immigration policy, and background checks on guns and lockstep support for tough anti-abortion laws and tax breaks for the wealthy all poll relatively poorly.

“The problem for the Republican Party is that you have a recalcitrant minority trying to hold off a tolerant majority,” says David Boaz of the libertarian Cato Institute. “The increased salience of social issues is a challenge for Republicans. . . . most of the [top-tier] candidates will try to avoid these issues. But the ones who aren’t at that level, they are going to keep bringing them back.”

For the moment, the most unifying default position for Republicans is to blame the Roberts Court for the Obamacare and marriage decisions, even though evangelicals played a critical role in winning the appointments of its ostensibly conservative majority.

[T]he demands of the GOP debate and primary process are sure to drag everyone to the right – because white, religious-minded, social conservatives participate in disproportionate numbers. By wedging moderate New Hampshire between social conservative bastions like Iowa and New Hampshire, Republican presidential candidates are forced into rhetorical contortions that muddy their messages and force them to mix conservative nostalgia with a wink to trending, moderate undercurrents.

[T]he demands of the GOP debate and primary process are sure to drag everyone to the right – because white, religious-minded, social conservatives participate in disproportionate numbers. By wedging moderate New Hampshire between social conservative bastions like Iowa and New Hampshire, Republican presidential candidates are forced into rhetorical contortions that muddy their messages and force them to mix conservative nostalgia with a wink to trending, moderate undercurrents.

It’s really under 40-over 40. Under-40 Republicans support the ruling,” said Steve Schmidt, who thinks Walker should drop his marriage amendment idea for the sake of the party.

“Support for gay marriage is not going to start suddenly contracting now that it’s legal everywhere,” he added. “This will be the last presidential election where you have Republicans trapped into the positions they have on this issue because it’s no longer a political issue. This is a settled issue now.”

As I have argued for a long time now, the GOP will continue to move toward a minority party status until such time as the knuckle dragging, ignorance embracing  Christofascists are forced from power.  The establishment needs to reject the myth that evangelicals will stay home if bigotry and dog whistle racism do not remain planks in the GOP platform and belatedly move into the 21st century.