How Trump Blew the GOP Convention

A different poll, this one from Washington Post/ABC News suggests that part of Donald Trump's (thankfully) dismal showing in the latest polls stems in part from the manner in which he blew his opportunity at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.  Of course, subsequent self-created gaffes haven't helped him either.  The problem, in my view, is that rather than embody an effort to expand his appeal, Trump focused on exciting his base, a group that many Americans view as downright scary people given their racism, homophobia, and overall misogyny.   A piece in the Washington Post looks at Trump's convention which ultimately cause fewer people to want to support him.  Here are highlights:

Conventions are not complicated things. They are a few nights' worth of free media attention, during which each political party can make its best case to voters for the general election. There's lots of ceremony and far, far too many speakers, but at the end of the day, it's just one long ad for a candidate — and, essentially, the only time during the campaign when this happens.

As we've noted before, Donald Trump blew it. Gallup has been tracking the response from voters to conventions since 1984, and the Republican National Convention of 2016 was the first for which more people said it made them less likely to back the candidate. 

The Washington Post-ABC News poll released Sunday includes data that gives a bit more insight into just how Trump managed to make his position worse.

Before the conventions, the plurality of support each candidate received was thanks to people who wanted to vote against the alternative. In other words, most people who said they were backing Hillary Clinton were backing her because they wanted to see Trump lose, and vice versa.

After the conventions, though, that changed: A slight plurality of Clinton supporters now back her because they want her to be the president. 

The big change was with independents. Independents who supported Clinton before the conventions were far more likely to say that it was out of opposition to Trump, by a 2-to-1 margin; after the convention, support for Clinton from independents was only slightly more because they opposed Trump. In fact, independents back Clinton out of enthusiasm for her at the exact same margin that Republicans back Trump out of enthusiasm for him (45 percent of each group).

There was also a big shift in favorability ratings for Clinton after the conventions. Before, her net favorability — those viewing her favorably minus those viewing her unfavorably — was at minus-17. After, she improved to minus-6. Trump's numbers moved much less, from minus-28 to minus-25.

In other words, the conventions didn't unify Republicans around Trump. The conventions made the rift in the party worse.  Part of this is certainly that Clinton's convention was successful — and that the Democrats' outreach to Republican moderates had an effect. But part of it was also clearly that Trump's convention was a flop.

Again, I believe that Trump's dark convention highlighted the hatred and fear of others and/or change that motivates the GOP base. It's ugly and many independents were forced to face that reality.   If Trump did anything positive, it was to show the true foul face of today's GOP. 

RNC Nixes Proposed Anti-Gay Resolutions

While the Christofascist elements of the party base will likely be outraged, perhaps the Republican National Committee ("RNC") has finally realized that homophobia and anti-gay extremism is not good for the GOP's long term viability as a national political party.  At least that is one possible take away from the RNC action today killing two controversial anti-gay resolutions that were proposed for consideration during its summer meeting this week in Cleveland.  It is also possible that the RNC did not to fuel a furor ahead of its first presidential circus debate event tomorrow after the Democrat National Committee had jumped on news that the proposals were up for consideration.  One can almost imagine the shrieks and howls - and sheets of flying spittle - that must be occurring in the headquarters of hate groups like Family Research Council, NOM and The Family Foundation here in Virginia.  Here are highlights from Time.com on the development:

The Republican National Committee’s resolutions committee quietly rejected a pair of resolutions critical of homosexuality Wednesday.

The controversial resolutions dealing with sex education and same-sex marriage threatened to cast a shadow on the first GOP presidential debate Thursday in Cleveland, as the party looks toward expanding its base in the key swing state. According to a member of the committee, both failed to gain support to be recommended to the full 168-member party governing body on Friday.

The first resolution, introduced by embattled Michigan national committeeman Dave Agema, would have encouraged “schools that are teaching the homosexual lifestyle in their sexual education class also include the harmful physical aspects of the lifestyle.” The second, which would have encouraged Congress and states to pass laws in an effort to nullify June’s Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, was introduced by Louisiana national committeeman Ross Little, Jr. The Washington Blade first reported on the proposed resolutions over the weekend.

The proposals quickly garnered attention and criticism from the Democratic National Committee and same-sex marriage proponents. The Human Rights Campaign launched a digital ad campaign Wednesday to encourage candidates to support the plaintiff in Obergefell v. Hodges, Ohioan Jim Obergefell.

But the resolutions committee also failed to approve a counter-proposal that would have called for the party to respect differing opinions on the Supreme Court case among its presidential candidates.

According to a person familiar with the resolutions committee meeting, only four resolutions were sent to the full Republican National Committee for a final vote on Friday: one condemning Planned Parenthood amid recent controversial videos about fetal tissue, another condemning President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, a resolution on judicial overreach, and a fourth honoring a recently deceased former RNC member.

While it is possible that the resolutions could be offered once again at the general session on Friday, such a move is seen as unlikely, and would almost certainly fail.

Another take, of course, is that perhaps the GOP is learning that whenever the party takes new anti-gay stands, GOP elected officials tend to get outed - ask former Virginia 2nd district congressman Ed Schrock what happened to him after the Virginia GOP began its anti-gay jihad.

RNC Set to Vote on Anti-Gay Resolutions This Week

This week will be another test as to whether or not the Republican Party is ready to move into the 21st century.  Previous Party Platforms on social issues have been largely authored by Christofascists and hate group extremists.  This week the Republican National Committee ("RNC") will vote on anti-gay resolutions opposing same sex marriage and opposition to sex education that includes LGBT individuals.  Many in the RNC seemingly wish gays would either disappear or be struck dead in a single stroke.     The odds are that the anti-gay resolutions will pass and the GOP will further signal younger voters that it remains the party of the hate filled past.  Here are highlights on the coming vote from the Washington Blade (note the assumption that being gay is synonymous with being HIV positive and, therefore, diseased):

In the same week Republican presidential candidates are scheduled to slug it out in their first official debate, the Republican National Committee is set to vote during its summer meeting on resolutions against same-sex marriage and in favor of anti-gay sex education in schools, the Washington Blade has learned.

The Blade obtained text of two proposed anti-gay resolutions . . .  on the table for discussion during the upcoming meeting in Cleveland, Ohio.

If the RNC were to adopt any of the non-binding resolutions next week, it would be the first official act of the Republican Party on the marriage issue following the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision last month in favor of marriage rights for same-sex couples. The initial vote could take place during the executive committee meetings on Wednesday and Thursday, where a successful vote would lead to consideration at the full committee meeting on Friday.

One resolution, titled “Resolution for Balanced Sex-Ed in Schools,” was introduced by former Michigan State House lawmaker and RNC member Dave Agema. It encourages schools “teaching the homosexual lifestyle in their sexual education class” to “also include the harmful physical aspects of the lifestyle.”

The resolution is based on the belief the Republican Party “supports the institution of traditional marriage,” which is considered code for opposition to same-sex marriage. The proposal is also based on questionable assertions that American culture “is portraying the homosexual lifestyle as an attractive option for school-aged children” and the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes says being gay take up to 21 years off a person’s life. 

The resolution sponsor Agema is the same RNC member who has repeatedly landed in hot water for making anti-gay, racist and anti-Muslim posts on Facebook, such as an endorsement of Russia’s anti-gay propaganda law and an article saying gay people are “filthy,” frequently pedophiles and responsible for 50 percent of U.S. murders. Republican National Committee Chair Reince Preibus and Michigan Republican Party Chair Bobby Schostok have called on Agema to step down and the RNC has censured him, but no explicit mechanism exists to expel him from the RNC and he has remained in his post.

Another resolution, titled “To Reserve, Strip and Pursue,” was introduced by Republican National Committee member Ross Little of Louisiana directly.

The proposal calls on Congress to defy the Supreme Court by passing, in accordance with the Tenth Amendment, legislation saying marriage laws and recognition of marriages is the exclusive province of the states, although states shouldn’t be able to legalize polygamy or prohibit interracial marriage. Further, in accordance with Article III of the U.S. Constitution, the resolution seeks legislation stripping federal courts of jurisdiction of marriage issues.

The RNC didn’t respond to multiple requests to comment on any of the resolutions, although multiple sources have confirmed they’re on the table. 

To read the full text of the anti-gay resolutions, go to the Blade story.   Hate and bigotry remain among the hallmarks of today's GOP.  Frankly, I am surprised that the resolutions did not call for the reintroduction of bans on interracial marriage give the rampant racism in the GOP base.

Mike Huckabee Reminds Us of the GOP War on Women

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LGBT citizens are not the only targets of Republican bigotry and oppression.  Women are another favored target as Christofascist lunatic Mike Huckabee - Huckabee has stated on television that he wants the Bible to replace the U.S. Constitution as America's governing document - forcefully reminded us in his recent comments on women at the Republican National Committee winter meeting.  Even conservative columnist Kathleen Parker - one of the generally still sane conservatives - was offended and takes Huckabee - and by extension the Republican Party-  to task for this continued batshitery.  Here are highlights from Parker's column:

What Huckabee was saying was that women are not just packages of reproductive parts whose lives are circumscribed by access to birth control. This is the thinking he ascribes to Democrats. Instead, he said, Republicans are fighting a war for women “to be empowered to be something other than victims of their gender.”

Not bad so far, but then . . . uh-oh.

“And if the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it, let us take that discussion all across America because women are far more than the Democrats have played them to be.”

That is one long sentence, punctuated with several highlight-worthy words — “helpless,” “libido,” “Uncle Sugar” and, never far from the male Republican mind, “reproductive system.”  Paging Dr. Freud . . .
 
As Republicans can’t seem to learn, it’s all in how you say things. Even if Huckabee was only describing how he believes Democrats think of women, he may have parted the curtain on his own unconscious processes. Who, really, is worried about women’s libidos? 

No one in the debate about health insurance coverage of birth control has concerned himself with libido-related concerns except, notably, Rush Limbaugh. It was he who made the leap from Sandra Fluke’s insistence that health insurance should cover birth control to his conclusion that Fluke is, therefore and obviously, a “slut.”

One is justified in wondering: Why do these men concern themselves so much with what women do with their, ahem, “reproductive systems”? 

Does Huckabee really think that Democrats are wedded to the idea that women can’t function without “Uncle Sugar” offering medications to thwart ovulation and fertilization? Even Uncle Sugar is creepy. No doubt intended as a clever twist on Uncle Sam, he sounds like the lurking uncle who trades chocolate for a smooch on the upstairs landing.

Rather than end the idea of a Republican war on women, Huckabee has merely provided fresh fodder to Democrats, while reminding women why they don’t want to associate with this crowd. Clue-less.

One does indeed have to wonder why this angry aging white men are so utterly obsessed with sex whether it be gay sex or women's body parts.  To me it suggests that they all need a serious mental health care intervention.