Rational Republicans Need To Send A Message

 In 2008, America had suffered a 15% contraction in its gross domestic product. It was fighting two wars, losing 300,000 jobs per month and the auto industry was on the verge of collapse while Osama bin laden was still laughing at the United States.

Since 2009,  America has experienced 27 straight months of job growth adding 4 million jobs, the war in Iraq is over, the auto industry is back and Osama bin laden laughs no more. Given where we started and where we are now, only a fool or liar would say we are worse off.  Even Jim Cramer of CNBC says the economy is stronger than what people are saying.  

When you add in affordable health care, which has enabled two million young people to stay on their parents health insurance until the age of 26 against the backdrop of  the most intransigent congress in decades the accomplishments are actually astounding. Even Republican Virginia Governor Jim McDonnell had to admit at least in the short run  “Did it help us in the short run with health care and education and spending to balance the budget? Sure,” McDonnell said. “Does it help us in the long term to really cut the unemployment rate? I’d say no.”
Obviously, there is a lot more to do but there is no doubt the nation is better off today than it was in 2008.

Nevertheless the republican plan is to bombard Americans with the idea of a CEO as the second coming of Christ in that he will miraculously  save the nation, while forgetting that it was CEO’s that got us into the financial bind and who ultimately laid off millions of Americans.  

Elections are never about the truth but rather perception and Republicans are quite aware of the gullibility of their voting base but facts are facts.
Nonetheless, as the economy improves, the media has missed one of the biggest issues of the election, which is the undermining of the democratic process by a collective of republican leaders who seem to be like exiled leaders plotting to take back a country that rejected them.  As republican leadership seeks to disenfranchsie voters particularly those who are black and Latino, media outlets, with exceptions, have exhibited a deafening silence.  

For the Republican Party hierarchy it is about power. People such as Karl Rove or even Mitt Romney have long traded in their moral center for power and like an addict will do anything to satisfy that craving.

But, what about the republican electorate. There is no doubt that a great many will vote republican because that is what they have always done. Democrats are no different. Nevertheless, for a large segment of the republican populace the issue is not the economy. It is about the person himself.

Since January 2009, there has been a pernicious attack stemming from a racial animus towards Barack Obama. Race drives many of the attacks against Barack Obama as well as the voter suppression bills.

While commentators have talked about the nations division the Obama campaign actually brought people together. In 2008 Obama won with 92% of the Black vote, 67% of the Latino vote, 61% Asian  83% of the Jewish vote but only  43% of the white vote.  A broad coalition came together in 2008 which led republican groups to strategize in order to turn the Latino, black and gay community against each other.

Unfortunately, the republican party has become a bastion of white nativism that has continued to suffer from the Gayle Quinnell syndrome, the woman who said during a McCain rally that Obama was an Arab until McCain smartly corrected her.

It is a subject that very few really want to address directly from the president on down but the republican have played the race issue using their surrogates from Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck and Ann Coulter.  Comments from Newt Gingrich to Rick Santorum.  Mitt Romney whose Mormonism heritage was steeped in racial has attached himself to the birtherism of Donald Trump. They have adopted the Peter Brimelow strategy to win the election.

No-one should expect anyone from the republican hierarchy to admit their racial animus even as birtherism and southern strategy tactics are alive and well in the republican party.  A crazy person doesn’t admit to their insanity.

Ordained Southern Baptist minister Mike Huckabee, Franklin Graham, Wisconsin Lutheran Congresswoman Michelle Bachman who use religiosity as a veneer for their racial animus should not be expected to confess their egregious use of xenophobia. Instead republicans will trot out black conservatives such as Ron Christie, who will consistently deny the issue of race within the Republican Party even as  Ken Melham, the former head of the Republican National Committee apologized for their use of the southern strategy. Unfortunately, the mainline church has not shown any sign of being less timid then they were during the civil rights movement. 

Surprisingly however is the platform that the revered Barbara Walters and CNN’s Wolf Blitzer have given to the inane behavior of Donald Trump because in their minds he can bring them ratings.

The Republican Party is right to fear the future. Unless the Republican Party changes they are destined to become an irrelevant, anachronistic institution consisting of nativists, religious oddities and black conservative sycophants like Shelby Steele.

Rational republicans should be embarrassed by their party and they need to send a message by rejecting the leadership and its strategy of undermining American democracy.