The Republican Producers

Sometimes people fail for a reason.  In the musical The Producers, the main characters purposely fail to con others out of money.  Why the Republican Party consistently fails, and seems to enjoy doing so, is beyond me.

If you think I’m being partisan let’s take a look at the Republican’s blunders over the past two years and see why these events are so harmful.

2012 Republican Primary

Action: The primary race turned into a proverbial debate over which candidate was the most socially conservative.

Result: The primary race alienated female/gay/immigrant voters and positioned the Party as out-of-touch and out-dated.

Rape Comments by Reps. Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin

Action: In their respective 2012 races, Representatives Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin essentially associated rape to an act of God.

Result: Failure to condone these statements by Party leaders (including nominee Mitt Romney) further alienated female voters.

2011 Grand Bargain and 2012 Fiscal Cliff Failures

Action: Republicans were unable to reach a debt limit and fiscal cliff deal with President Obama on two separate occasions.  Furthermore, they could not articulate what their actual positions were in these negotiations.

Result: Not only did taxes go up, but public opinion shifted against the Republican Party.  The public now approves of the tax increases that were enacted.

2013 CPAC Convention

Action: While not an official Party action, it spoke volumes when the Conservative Political Action Convention (CPAC) invited Donald Trump and Sarah Palin to speak, however Governors Chris Christie (NJ) and Bob McDonnell (VA) were not invited.

Result: I’m not sure that the public took note of this, but for those who did, these actions created the image of an out-of-touch conservative wing of the Party.

The first step is admitting you have a problem…

Fortunately the Republicans have at least another year until the 2014 midterm elections, three years until the next presidential election and several leaders are aware of their perception problem.  Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Governors Bobby Jindal (LA) and Chris Christie have all begun publicly discussing the need to broaden the Republican Party’s appeal.   As one leader recently said, the Republican Party needs to stop being the party of stupid.   But it will take more than speeches to do this including: public condemnation of members when they take to saying unintelligent comments, an ability to publicly communicate their message and to position themselves beyond the Party of tax cuts and abortion.

The Producers may have set out to fail, but if you’ve seen either movie version or the stage show, you know their fate takes a wildly hilarious turn.  In a black humor sort of way, the Republican’s fate may be similar, however nobody in the Party will be laughing when their failures culminate in electoral defeat.