GOP doomed no matter what

Nov. 8, 2012

By John Seiler

More than by the election, I’m amused by the aftermath comments. Consider this one, an analysis by Patrick May and Matt O’Brien for the Santa Cruz Sentinel:

“As California goes, so goes the nation.

“Republicans who missed the lesson of the Golden State’s shift from friend of the Grand Old Party to Democratic super majority may be giving the state another look amid the soul-searching a day after Barack Obama’s solid defeat of Mitt Romney.

“Just as the GOP years ago backed itself into a political-minority box in California by appealing to a vocal but shrinking base of white male voters while alienating other groups, many Republicans on Wednesday admitted they now face the same outcome on a national level unless they radically alter their strategy.

“‘The national Republican Party is following the path of the California GOP, which means they’re doomed unless they can find a way to reach not only Hispanic and Asian voters, but also women and even gays and lesbians,’ said Terry Christensen, political science professor emeritus at San Jose State University.”

The professor is wrong. Given that California’s GOP just nosedived to less than 1/3 representation in both houses of the Legislature, the real meaning is that the national GOP also is doomed. Even John McCain, who sponsored the McCain-Kennedy amnesty bill, got only 2/3 of Latinos in 2008. No one ever will do better. Not even Marco Rubio, assuming people forget he can’t manage his own personal finances.

What the professor and so many commentators really are saying is: Republicans should be just like Democrats. Actually, on most issues, the parties are close to identical. It’s only the perception that is different because the party leaders like to fool the rank-and-file.

Democrats like to portray themselves as the party of working people, the middle class; but they’re just as much owned by the plutocrats as are the Republicans. The main beneficiary of Obamacare was not the uninsured, but Big Pharma, which got more victims to ply with its patent medicines.

Republicans like to portray themselves as the party of industry and entrepreneurship; but they’re just as beholden to Big Business and its subsidies, especially defense contractors, as are the Democrats.

Christian Right

The Christian Right seems to have some influence in the GOP. But since when have they won any battles? They’ve backed Republican presidents for 40 years on the promise that abortion would be made illegal again, but it’s still legal. The schools remain cesspools of illiteracy and political correctness. The universities are so left wing they make Mao look like Barry Goldwater.

The problem for the GOP elite is that it needs to get the Christian Right and other factions on its side to get enough votes to put up a good show on election day — before losing. So there’s the dilemma of getting the rubes to vote for you in the primary, then selling them out in the general election. That opens up the Republican candidate to charges of flip-flopping, something Obama used successfully against Romney, who has taken every side of every issue.

Republicans also face another problem. Democrats are really interested in politics, Republicans are really interested in business. So Republicans remain amateurs at politics.

The one thing that might bail out the Republicans is if the economy collapses, as after the 1929 Wall Street Crash, which was blamed on the GOP because it held the White House then. Now, the White House is held by a Democrat. So if things collapse, he and the Democrats will get the blame.

Even if that happens, Republicans probably will find a way to blow it.