Archive for lots of old white men

“Don’t be fooled” by the so-called GOP makeover. “Rarely has it been more dangerous.”

be afraid

Since the November elections, the GOP has pretended it’s reinventing itself. Adorable. Or to be more current, totes adorbs.

Republicans must think America’s pretty stupid if they think we’re buying into that. I’ve posted several times about how this papering over is nothing but that: superficial nonsense, cosmetic changes in language, new talking points, fake outreach, non-inclusive inclusiveness. Take these entries, for example:

RNC Chair Reince Priebus now wants to play hero with minorities GOP hasn’t wanted to touch with a 10-foot car elevator

Doonesbury– GOP “soul-searching”: “It’s time to get serious and double down with state-by-state election rigging!”

Registered Republican since 1947: “It is quite obvious that my fellow Republicans still do not get the message.”

And back in January, there was The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad GOP dissension-slash-implosion.

They have no intention of evolving, because too many conservatives continue to be racist, homophobic, corporate, bigoted, misogynistic, ignorant, set-in-their-ways, and/or fearful members of a rapidly shrinking white majority that fears change and political outcomes (or as Rachel Maddow put it back in 2010: “Be afraid, white people! The black people are coming for you!”) among other things.

Maybe they should be called the Introspection and Diversity R Not Us party.

Tim Dickinson says as much in Rolling Stone:

Don’t be fooled. On the ground, a very different reality is unfolding: In the Republican-led Congress, GOP-dominated statehouses and even before the nation’s highest court, the reactionary impulses of the Republican Party appear unbowed. Across the nation, the GOP’s severely conservative agenda – which seeks to impose job-killing austerity, to roll back voting and reproductive rights, to deprive the working poor of health care, and to destroy agencies that protect the environment from industry and consumers from predatory banks – is moving forward under full steam. [...]

Today’s GOP may desperately need to remake itself as “culturally modern, environmentally responsible and economically inclusive,” argues David Frum, a veteran of the George W. Bush White House, but it remains, he says, in the throes of a “Tea Party tantrum.”

As it works to lock in as many retrograde policies as possible before it finally chooses to either modernize or die, the Republican Party is like a wounded beast: Rarely has it been more dangerous.

And then he goes on to detail his premise points at length. Take a look, right here.

Registered Republican since 1947: “It is quite obvious that my fellow Republicans still do not get the message.”

dear gop sick of your s--- smaller

Today’s L.A. Times letters to the editor, because our voices matter:

Re “New leader urges GOP to leave ‘comfort zone,’” March 4

Jim Brulte, the new chairman of the California Republican Party, urges members to leave their “comfort zone.”

Republicans need to resonate with the rapidly changing population of this state, and yet the party chose as chairman a white male conservative from Rancho Cucamonga. As a registered Republican since 1947, I was taken aback by this irony.

It is quite obvious that my fellow Republicans still do not get the message. Perhaps they should review the demise of the Whig Party and the rise of the Republican Party.

Raymond Rodriguez

Long Beach

***

Brulte says, “The first principle of conservatism is you live within your means.” For the GOP, it sounds more like, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

It appears that friends are coming to the rescue of California’s Republican Party. One of Brulte’s first acts as chairman was to deliver a check for $50,000 from a friend, while promising that another was on the way. No doubt this “friend” has no problem living within his means.

I will write a check to Brulte for $5 if he will meet me in public to explain why I should vote for the GOP.

Manuel Carrillo

Venice

***

Brulte attempts to restore GOP credibility by reiterating that “the first principle of conservatism is you live within your means.” He meant “financial means.”

Conspicuously missing was living within the means of nature to replenish the natural resources we are voraciously consuming. Showing respect for coming generations with financial conservatism is admirable, but leaving them with an environmental mess is the opposite of respect.

The GOP has to stop using “green” as an expletive if it is going to leave its comfort zone.

David Perlman

Laguna Beach

Cliff Notes– IOKIYAR: Republicans preach morality but do the opposite

family values my ass

Via aaateeshirts.com

Via aaateeshirts.com

Recently I posted about hypocrite extraordinaire Pete Domenici, the former GOP senator who admitted to a secret affair and fathering a child outside marriage.

Which brings me to my dear friend and mentor, Cliff Schecter, who has a new post up; Cliff has given me permission to share his work with you, so I’ll give you the latest edition of what I call Cliff Notes.

He skewers better than a chef at Smokey Joe’s BBQ. He has comedic insights that rival those of our mutual friend, the hilarious Lizz Winstead. He’s sharper than the point on Sarah Palin’s pin head.

Here are a few excerpts from his latest, with permission. Please read the whole thing, because he has way more than I’ve included here:

Domenici is certainly not the first politician to suffer from “Strom Thurmond’s Disease”. … Just another sad story of conservative hypocrisy, and in Thurmond’s case, one of many dalliances with women not his wife for the “family values”-spouting, Lost Cause romantic.

This is not to say this kind of thing doesn’t happen on the Democratic/liberal side… Yet, the difference is that like most Republicans, Domenici was abundantly concerned what was going on in our private lives if we were gay, a woman, or a President being impeached in the 1990s over an affair.  [...]

For kicks, here was his statement at the time, dripping with enough irony to quench even Marco Rubio’s thirst. [...]

Truthfulness is the first pillar of good character in the Character Counts program of which I have been part of establishing in New Mexico… Guess which one of these pillars comes first? Trustworthiness. Trustworthiness… So what do I say to the children in my state when they ask, “Didn’t the President lie? Doesn’t that mean he isn’t trustworthy? Then, Senator, why didn’t the Senate punish him?”

Ooh, I have an answer! How about you tell the children of your state that if character counts, your life adds up to a goose egg? [...]

Frankly, the most important part of this affair is that it’s another reminder of why the troupe of old men playing pajama dress up, known as the “Tea Party”, are so perpetually angry. This is the way the world is supposed to exist… Old white guys thumping Bibles on weekends … and doing the very things they warned us to avoid.

No longer do they get to just live in this world of white, male privilege, and it’s a serious bummer. It’s why you see Ted Nugent doing performance art for dementia, and more famous white guys from David Mamet to Rick Warren striking out with articles or tweets that make no sense in the real world. And let’s not even get started on Pope Benedict.

These guys have to actually answer today for the ultimate form of elitism: their white male privilege of being able to tell us all how to behave while blithely ignoring the very same dictates. … [W]e have the numbers at polling booths, and it’s driving them bonkers.

IOKIYARIOKIYAR

opposite worldCliff Schecter is an author, pundit and public relations strategist whose firm Libertas, LLC handles media relations for political, corporate and non-profit clients. 

Follow him on Twitter: @CliffSchecter

RNC Chair Reince Priebus now wants to play hero with minorities GOP hasn’t wanted to touch with a 10-foot car elevator

gop anti icky poo

President Obama won 93 percent of the black vote, 71 percent of the Hispanic vote and 73 percent of the Asian vote in the November election. Mitt Romney didn’t do his party any favors with his secretly taped “47 percent” remarks, saying they were “dependent on government” and “victims” who were “entitled to healthcare, to food, to housing, you name it.”

As Rick Perry would say:

oops rick perry smaller

Recently the Texas GOP Chairman said his state could become a battleground in 2016. Stories like that one have Republicans spooked.

Now delusional RNC chair Reince Priebus wants to play party hero and win the hearts and minds of the very people he and his fellow Republicans disenfranchised, treated as inferior, disparaged, vastly undervalued, and designated as “the others.”

His new mission is to convince all those formerly icky-poo people– whom his party hasn’t wanted to touch with a ten-foot car elevator– that they’re suddenly worth an abundance of time and effort.

Authentic expressions of right wing appreciation and recognition on the other hand… But let’s not get greedy.

He says it will take years but insists that reaching out to voters whom the GOP regularly alienated “can move the numbers in a significant way for us in the future.”

ding ding ding

There it is, that’s what it’s all about: Moving numbers. It’s not about caring, not about truly changing from within and becoming genuinely inclusive, not about making civil rights, human rights, and equal rights a priority. No. It’s about “moving the numbers.”

Priebus added, “And it’s not just to move the numbers – it’s to do the right thing.” That he had to tack that on, lest anyone misinterpret his motives, speaks volumes. Afterthought much?

This is all about his legacy.

The Hill:

Reince Priebus is staking his legacy as Republican National Committee chairman on improving the party’s performance with minority voters. [...] Priebus says he plans on being remembered as the Republican chairman who changed things for his party. [...]

Speaking to a room full of predominantly black businessmen, community leaders, party activists and dignitaries, Priebus said he was committed to “building long term, lasting, genuine, and authentic relationships” in places where the Republican Party “just hasn’t been.”

[W]e’ve got a lot of ground to make up with the black community.” [...]  On the grassroots side, Priebus acknowledged that “our contacts are lousy” [...]

The RNC’s grassroots overhaul will address everything from “technology, data sharing, demographic issues, voter outreach and inclusion, to our primary system and the debate calendar,” an effort that Priebus said would be “extraordinarily expensive.” [...]

The second initiative is improving the GOP’s message to and image with minority groups.

If I sound a little skeptical, it’s because, well, as President Obama lays out plans for immigration reform and says, “We forget that most of us used to be them,” top Republicans like Karl Rove say to the GOP: Just don’t *sound* intolerant, Bobby Jindal said, “If we want people to like us, we have to like them first,” and Yep, still a pig, Reince Priebus.

Meantime, growing Latino clout forced the GOP hand– including evangelical pastors, US Chamber of Commerce– on immigration reform. A strategy memo released by a GOP pollster revealed that “Republicans have run out of persuadable white voters.”

So yes, Republicans are forced to “move the numbers,” stat!  Sure, they can try to do that while they simultaneously try to suppress the vote, bust unions, and deport and/or exploit undocumented immigrants.

Please proceed.

Here are a few more little issues that Reince thinks the right words and cosmetic fixes will overcome:

VIDEO: Rep. Lewis was “shocked.” He was also there in 1965. “You’re going to suggest that [the right to vote] is some racial entitlement?”

AUDIO– Fox mocks 102-year-old who waited hours to vote: “What’s the big deal? She was happy.”

If new GOP laws pass, it will literally be easier to legally buy a firearm in Virginia than it will be to vote

Graph: How long it took blacks, whites, Hispanics to vote in 2012. One guess who waited in line the least amount of time.

If you can’t win, cheat: Pennsylvania GOP to introduce election-rigging legislation

VIDEO– Andrea Mitchell to Haley Barbour on election-rigging schemes: Are Republicans “trying to game the system?”

At least 201,000 did not vote in Florida because of frustration with long lines

VIDEO– Republican consultant: Voter ID laws, long lines “help our side.”

Former Florida GOP leaders: Voter suppression was reason for new election law

Doonesbury: “There’s no future for angry, straight, white, well-armed, evangelical men”

doonesbury white men

Garry Trudeau is giving all those angry, straight, white, well-armed, evangelical men the attention they deserve.

NRA Responding to Newtown Massacre Is Like Clint Eastwood Talking to an Empty Chair

daily show clint eastwood old man and the seat gop convention

Your Daily Dose of Buzzflash at Truthout, via my pal Mark Karlin:

Eastwood is the iconic image to many gun owners as the man who can “make your day” with the wide barrel of a .357 Magnum cocked to your head. [...]

Nate Silver analyzed figures the other day in the New York Times and discovered that more Republicans than Democrats own guns – and the gap is increasing [...]

Exactly who or what are white males claiming to defend themselves against?

Since Obama was elected, we have heard many extremists on the right shout out slogans such as “to the bullet, if the ballot box fails” – and “if we keep moving toward socialism, I won’t rule out war.”  You recognize the verbal threats and their variations. Given America’s legacy of assassinations and violence – how our dreams and dashed and the course of history changed in the ’60s by gunfire – it would be naïve to regard these as idle carping.

Although the NRA and other gun advocacy organizations most often play upon the emotional need for a gun to use in self-defense against alleged criminal blacks and latinos (although they would never admit to playing the race card – but trust me, it’s a broken record in the coded appeals of the pro-gunners), they combine that with an anti-government agenda.  [...]

But the real fear of the generally aging white males who are the core of the “you’ll have to pry my gun from my cold dead fingers” cult is being psychologically threatened by a multi-cultural, multi-gender society in which the white patriarchal model (that implicitly includes white male privilege) is under siege. [...]

The explosive, vitriolic, sledge hammer opposition to gun control (and we are now, in this day and age, talking about firearms that are hi-tech weapons of war, not revolvers) is due to a fear that the age of white male dominance is in decline. [...]

As time progresses, however, the worship of guns as a religious objects is losing its appeal as the US population becomes more diverse [...]

That is why 82-year-old Clint “Dirty Harry” Eastwood was representative of the revered figure of a “locked and loaded” masculinity so appropriate for a Republican Convention.  That is also why his farcical interrogation of a phantom President Obama was symbolic of a masculine state of mind that may have finally lost its grip.

Please read the whole thing here.

Ruh roh! “Republicans have run out of persuadable white voters.”

Let’s recap: If this Democratic source is correct, the GOP is even more tone deaf than we thought:

Mitt Romney famously said, “It would be helpful to be Latino.”

And Bobby Jindal said, “If we want people to like us, we have to like them first.”

Karl Rove’s advice to his fellow Republicans was just don’t *sound* intolerant. It’s the language, see, not the policies. Sounding judgmental will lose you votes.

How will Republicans get out of this pickle? They have no use for anyone who isn’t male and white, they lost badly in the November elections because of their small minds, and now all they can do is tell each other that the Big Solution is to fake it.

So along comes a strategy memo released by GOP pollster Whit Ayres and the Hispanic Leadership Network’s Jennifer Korn. Strange as it seems, the GOP is  — wait for it — running out of white voters. It looks like they’ll have to do a whole lot more than just pretend:

Republicans have run out of persuadable white voters. For the fifth time in the past six presidential elections, Republicans lost the popular vote. Trying to win a national election by gaining a larger and larger share of a smaller and smaller portion of the electorate is a losing political proposition. [...]

Conclusion

Republicans face some major challenges among Hispanic Americans, problems that will not be resolved just by passing immigration reform legislation. Years of harsh rhetoric and punitive policies will not be undone overnight. Fixing a broken immigration system is necessary but not sufficient to make Republicans competitive in the Hispanic community.

But resolving those problems is imperative if Republicans hope to remain a competitive force in national politics. Numbers do not lie, and growing Hispanic influence in American life will only continue to grow.

H/t: Taegan