Republicans need to get with it – and fast

  GAZETTE BLOG EDITORIAL 

By Jim Keyworth

Gazette Blog Editor

It’s really hard to be gracious to Republicans and right wingers in the wake of their disastrous defeat at the polls when idiots like Terrel Kuhn of Mesa are given a forum.  In Kuhn’s case it was The Arizona Republic that published his letter to the editor, but your own Payson Roundup also allows right wingers to spew absolute, unchallenged nonsense on a regular basis.

 

Kuhn wrote:

“This election has shown the country is controlled by people who care for nothing beyond either handouts from the government or their left-wing agenda.”

Really?  Is that what the right wing took away from their defeat? You have to wonder how GOP-mainstream Kuhn’s view is based on Mitt Romney’s 47 percent comment. And if that's what a sizable number of the Republican Party thinks, it is on a downhill path to oblivion.  

I’m not sure that wouldn’t be a good thing, because the Republicans have become way too extreme to contribute to a meaningful dialog about what this nation stands for.  But it would be messy and destructive, so please allow me to offer some unsolicited advice.

First, the Republicans need to ditch the Tea Party.  It’s a radical fringe element made up mostly of old selfish white guys.  It will never gain the numbers it needs to tip the scales and, in the meantime, all it does is label the Republicans as uncompromising extremists.  You can't continue to allow 25 percent of your membership to keep calling the shots.

Two, the Republicans need to find viable candidates.  Mitt Romney is an elitist, out-of-touch pretty boy who got his money from daddy and from dismantling small businesses, then he promptly moved said money out of the country to avoid taxes.  If you doubt this, tell me why he wouldn’t release his tax returns?  I'm never going to vote for a guy like that.

And Santorum and Perry and Gingrich aren’t going to cut it either.  I have a lot of respect for Gov. Chris Christie, but his fellow Republicans don’t seem to after he dared to compliment President Obama.

Three, Republicans need to start caring about women’s rights.  And they need to mean it.  In fact “meaning it” is something the GOP seems to have in short supply.  We need real answers, not unsubstantiated fearmongering and BS about legitimate rape.

Four, where are the facts?  Romney wouldn’t even let budget wonk Ryan talk specifics on the campaign trail.  The American people are not as stupid as the Republicans seem to think.

Five, the demographics in this country are changing forever, and the Republicans don’t seem to get it. It’s going to be harder each election for fat, bald white guys to win.  It’s over, folks.  You better find a way to reach out to people of color and you better mean it (as I said above, the American people are not as stupid as the Republicans seem to think).

Sixth, and most important, Republicans need to get a heart.  You can call them entitlements or handouts or whatever you want, but great nations take care of their sick, their poor, their elderly.  As one of the latter, let me say it very personally: “I have contributed my share to this country.  I have paid for my Social Security.  You damn well better get this message straight.  We are not begging for anything, but by God we earned it and you will never win an election by trying to deny that.”

So if all of the above is what Mr. Kuhn refers to as a “left-wing agenda,” I’ve got news for him.  We are now the majority and you can climb on this train or you can wallow in all that nonsensical crap about entitlements and handouts. 

 

I am extremely proud of what I stand for.  I am not only in the majority, but I am right – and you, sadly, are on the wrong side of history.  Seniors, people of color, women, not to mention gays – you’ll never win against that coalition.

A part of me says go ahead and finish the job of destroying yourself, and I suspect that is what is going to happen.

But we liberals are dreamers (it's that hope and change thing), and I would love to see that day come again when the ideals of Ronald Reagan and even Barry Goldwater hold sway in the Republican Party.  I would love to see that day come when the Republicans say once again, “OK, let’s work this out.  Let’s compromise.  It’s for the good of the people we represent.”

 

What are the chances?  Until the Republicans discredit bigoted, shortsighted, people like Mr. Kuhn (and the Tea Party), I’m afraid they’re not very good.

P.S.  I am a registered independent.