The Life of the Party
by Nebu Ganesh

Nebu Ganesh, PhD.
East Coast Liberal Effete Intellectual

Since November, the G.O.P. have been trying to understand their Presidential loss.  Unofficial conservative group think reasoned that the right message was presented by the wrong candidate.  Reince Preibus, Chairman of the Republican National Committee decided to get to the bottom of the issue by commissioning the Growth and Opportunity Project, an effort generated to uncover reasons and provide solutions.  The result was presented this week in parallel with the CPAC convention, because the G.O.P. does not understand the concept of irony.  That failing was not mentioned in any report.

Reince Priebus, Chairman of the RNC.
"It all goes back to what our moms used to tell
us; its not just what we say, its how we say it."
If so, why did she name him Reince?  I mean,
how do you say it?

The findings of the Growth and Opportunity Project are as close as the Party have come to stepping outside of their philosophical comfort zone.  Their rationale may be contrived to fit the Party mold, but the problems they identify are very real, and the report is a good first step in recognizing the scope of the issue.  Unfortunately their good efforts were overshadowed by Tea Party antics and the usual offensive rhetoric offered as red meat to true believers at CPAC.

The major sponsors of CPAC.
The G.O.P. report did not mention corporate
influence on Republican Party policy.  Many
 CPAC sponsors give money to centrist
 campaigns also.

The G.O.P. report concludes that people of color have the impression that they are not wanted under the big tent, and that the Republican Party is composed of old, white, culturally insulated men. Conservative candidates need to develop an ‘outreach’ to their new ‘demographic partners’, aka people of color.  It suggests the creation of diversity awareness classes, termed ‘liberty classes’ to help politicians learn how to help people at the bottom of the economic ladder.  And it reports that conservative attempts to dismantle affirmative action laws are off-putting, especially while keeping programs perceived as helping the ‘well off’.  Minorities also have a strong sense of ‘linked fate’ and therefore disagree with G.O.P. pronouncements that President Obama is ‘lazy’ and take offense to terms like ‘self-deportation’, a gateway issue for Hispanics.  Young voters, it seems, have an open acceptance of gay life styles and do not react well to anti-gay rhetoric.  And surprisingly, the report warns that ‘king-making’ political PACs are corrupting political environments, resulting in sub-standard candidates and an obstructionist electorate.  The report also warns that the G.O.P. must deal with ‘small but noisy elements’ that co-opt any message of inclusiveness if it wants to win the ‘propaganda battle’ against the Democrats.

Wow.  That is a lot of truth for our poor conservative brothers to consider. 

Liberals were shocked to learn that Google was top
sponsor at CPAC.  Google says their aim was to demonstrate
how technology can enhance and support political campaigns.
They are enduring scathing criticism from the left for their
 participation.

Meanwhile, the ‘small but noisy elements’ were waging their own ‘propaganda battle’ in Maryland.  Equal time was devoted to the battle against both Liberals and the Republican Party.  Popular centrist conservative politicians were not invited.  Although word went out that Party policy would now favorably consider gay rights issues, Log Cabin Republicans and conservative activist group GoProud were not included.  2013 CPAC attendees were the usual suspects, with this year’s added feature of a proud vocal white supremacist spouting hatred in a seminar designed to heighten cultural awareness.

Scott Terry, White Student Union Member and
Growth and Opportunity Project poster child.
During a seminar on how Republicans could better reach out
to minorities, Terry said that Frederick Douglass should have
thanked his former owner"for giving him food and shelter"
instead of forgiving him.  "Why can't we just have segrega-
tion?" he asked black presenter K. Carl Smith of the Frederick
 Douglass Republicans.  Terry also said that white Americans
 have been "systematically disenfranchised" by federal legis-
lation.  Asked if he would accept a society where African-
Americans were permanently subservient to whites, he said,
"I'd be fine with that."  He also said that African-Americans
"should be allowed to vote in Africa", and that "all the Tea
Parties" were concerned with the same racial issues that he
was.  At one point he said to a woman who challenged him
on the legacy of the Republican Party, "I didn't know the
legacy of the Republican Party included women correcting
men in public."  Terry failed to mention his feelings about
Latinos.  Sorry ladies, we don't know if he's married.

Situation normal, you might say. What's your point?  Well, the Growth and Opportunity Project was immediately dubbed by both liberal and conservative press as the ‘Republican autopsy’, with analysis termed as a ‘post-mortem’.  Autopsies are not performed on living entities.  There is a common belief that the Republican Party as we know it is dead, killed by a neo-conservative cancer.  In fact there have been two parties under the conservative umbrella for some time, the broad-spectrum Republicans who think of themselves as a big tent, and the parasite Tea Party coalition, non-conformists who refuse to cooperate but who use party resources to forward their own agenda.  Some experts believe that the philosophical divide between them permeates so deeply into the grass roots that it is unsolvable.

The Pot and the Kettle.
Sarah Palin took a Big Gulp, then went after new public enemy
#1 Karl Rove.  In a thinly veiled rant she characterized Rove as
 leeching money out of campaign donation processes and not
coming through with Republican victories.  Rove responded that
 involvement with his PAC, American Crossroads was the "worst
volunteer job that I've had in my life" and said that he collected no
salary for his efforts, and even paid his own travel expenses.  Well,
maybe it wasn't called 'salary or expenses', but if you believe that
Karl Rove made no money as a Republican strategist over the past
few years, we have a very nice bridge in Brooklyn we would like to
sell you.  The same goes for Palin.  Reince Priebus' mother should
have also mentioned something about the company you keep.

In fact the Republican Party has altered its course several times throughout history.  In surprisingly similar circumstances opposing factions have split off to become new entities.  If the Party majority cannot control the ‘small but noisy element’, they must remove it.  But there are a few problems.  For one thing, there is an outstanding amount of money being made in rabble-rousing, and it is dangerous to mess with a man’s livelihood.  A divorce will not be amicable.  For another, an out and out declaration of war within the party will almost certainly result in another failed White House bid.  But unless there is conciliatory reform within the Republican Party, history shows us that a split is inevitable. That, or the predicted death of the Party will come, necessitating a very real post-mortem.

Sorry Mrs. Priebus, its not just how they're saying it, its also what they are saying,
 and what they represent.  It's time for rational conservatives to bite the bullet in the high capacity ammo clip and move on.