One of the very minor inconveniences of returning from Netroots Nation late Sunday night is sorting through four days of mail on Monday afternoon. It's usually the standard junk mail combined with bills, bank statements, progressive fundraising drives and a few useful or relevant items. But imagine my surprise upon receiving a thick envelope from the Republican National Committee with big bold lettering: 2012 Presidential Election Emergency Voter Registration Verification.
Now, this wouldn't be the first time I've gotten fundraising mail from the GOP. Just last week I received a solicitation from Michelle Bachmann for her presidential campaign, as well as from the George W. Bush Presidential Library (to which I responded with a request to include My Pet Goat on its exalted shelves.)
But this was something altogether different. This particular mailer was instructive not just for what it said about the RNC, but for what it said about the perception the RNC has of its own base. The RNC knows that its base, the sort of people who would be inclined to donate cash and big checks to the RNC, are terrified not just of Democrats, but of democracy itself.
The mailer includes a survey-plus-fundraising pitch, a postcard to confirm your own voter registration with the Secretary of State, and a three-page letter. It's an expensive campaign, and surprisingly ill-targeted: I'm not only a long-time registered voter, I've voted in every single election in which I've been eligible to do so, I've been registered as a Democrat since the age of 18, and I'm an Executive Board Member of the California Democratic Party. Not exactly prime material for an RNC cash drive, which makes me wonder somewhat about the GOP's vaunted micro-targeting efficiency.
That said, the text of the appeal raises serious eyebrows. From the double-sided six-page letter (all emphasis as in original):
Dear Fellow American,
I urgently need to know whether or not you are registered to vote to help stop President Obama from being re-elected to a second in next year's presidential election -- and continuing to implement his dangerous, socialist political agenda to "fundamentally transform" America for another four years.
Your answers on the specially registered 2012 Election Voter Verification Poll enclosed are critical to help counteract aggressive new "Re-Elect Obama" voter resigration drives already sweeping the country.
Alarmingly, many political experts agree unless we can counteract these massive new Re-Elect Obama voter registration drives, he IS LIKELY to be re-elected, and may also REGAIN majority control of the U.S. Congress.
These intensive campaigns are led by his well-oiled politcal campaign machine including the Democrat leadership and powerful Big Labor Union Bosses, along with massive numbers of well-funded liberal special interest activst groups who want to turn America into a vast welfare state...
It goes on like this for six more pages, and ends thus:
P.S. Remember, most political experts now agree these massive "Re-Elect Obama" drives already sweeping the country -- led by the Democrat leadership, Big Labor and other huge, well-funded liberal special interests -- could well mean that Barack Obama will be re-elected for a second term and may also mean he will regain its liberal majority control of Congress.
If that happens his second term could be THE most damaging to your nation's economy, our personal freedoms, our free enterprise and the national sovereignty and security our Founders fought and died for ... and may change America forever.
Please - help us counter this dangerous threat by returning the enclosed 2012 Presidential Election Voter Registration Verification Poll that has been specially registered in your name. And please -- donate as much as you can possibly afford to help our critical grassroots voter registration effort to keep Barack Obama from being re-elected in 2012. Thank you.
P.P.S. If you are not registered to vote in the 2012 Presidential and Congressional elections, or are not sure if you are registered, please sign and mail the enclosed postcard I've prepared for you and addressed to your Secretary of State (Election Board).
Now the first obvious thing this says about the Republican National Committee is that they think their voting and donor base are total idiots. Beyond the hyperbolic rhetoric, overused talking points and sigh-inducing pearl clutching throughout the piece, the most standout lie here is the notion that the RNC somehow doesn't know who is registered to vote or not. It's kind of funny to think that a massive political organization is reaching out to donors to give them money, by stating openly that they're not really sure of who is registered to vote--information that can be obtained from your local county clerk for a small fee. So right off the bat, they're dramatically insulting the intelligence of their donor base, and it's clear the entire exercise is a cynical pitch calibrated for segment of the population with a fairly low political IQ.
But the other mark of condescension by the RNC toward its own base is the blatant assumption that not only are the RNC and its stable of political consultants terrified of actual voters (and for good reason), but they are counting on their so-called patriotic base sharing the same antipathy toward their fellow Americans. The biggest bogeyman in the RNC's entire fundraising pitch isn't George Soros, labor groups, the "lamestream media", environmentalists or any other typical whipping boy. They have calculated that their voters' and donors' biggest fear is that their fellow Americans might actually have a say in the governance of the country.
And it's not just their fellow Americans, but by making this sort of appeal, they have explicitly set themselves up against not just recent immigrants or those who have moved in the last four years, but most especially against younger Americans. The 2008 Presidential election mobilized countless new voters to register and make their voices heard at the polls. While voter registration drives are obviously important, it would be difficult to imagine even the foolish GOP donor assuming that voters who was eligible to vote in 2008 but did not, would suddenly be swept up in a massive voter registration drive for 2012. Which means that this cynically deceptive appeal from the RNC to its own donor base is not just an attack on liberal, progressive and Democratic Americans of all stripes, but most especially an attack on immigrants and particularly those between the ages of 18 and 22.
Which means that the GOP is consciously doubling down on its strategy of catering to populations in demographic decline, while encouraging their own base poking a stick in the eye of younger and browner Americans, hoping they stay home on election day rather than engage in the traditions of American democracy.
Stupid, short-sighted and deeply cynical. But par for the course for the modern GOP.