This election year we have an opportunity to possibly finish the Republican Party as a viable entity. Please allow me to explain why I see this as a relatively rare opportunity.
There are now more women voters than men voters. The GOPers in Congress badly overreached by attempting to deny women coverage of birth control by their insurance in order to placate religious zealots. They have waged a war on choice. The Congress has historically low approval ratings. They have awakened even non partisan women. Witness the departure of Olympia Snowe. Witness the regret of Lisa Murkowski in Alaska. Witness the retiring NY republican female legislator who said she would vote for Obama.
Please fold me past the squiggly line.
The GOPers overreached in important battleground states by pushing state rape in Virginia. The party made itself unable to win important states by having extremist governors push through unwelcome legislation against union rights in Ohio and Wisconsin.
Through its harsh rhetoric on immigration, it has lost the Hispanic vote by 84 to 14. Opposing the Dream Act cost them the fastest growing large segment of our population. The Right Wing Hate Machine on talk radio appears to have dived off a cliff.
Then let us consider the Republican primary. Six fringe candidates have led Mitt Romney.
The base wants an ideologically pure nominee. The establishment wants a candidate who has some chance of actually winning. Their primary process has hurt Mitt Romney by giving him a negative fifteen approval rating among the general election electorate. And it is not going to end any time soon, pushing Mitt Romney further and further to the right. Eventually, Mitt Romney is going to emerge as their nominee. If he loses badly, the rabid members of their base are going to argue that the reason why they have lost the last two general elections is that their nominee was a moderate. They will, therefore, insist that an ideologically pure republican be their nominee for 2016. That person will get about 30 percent of the vote and lose an incredible amount of states.
This is our chance to put an end to the party of hate as an electorally viable political party. These opportunities do not come around very often. We must take advantage of this opportunity and work our heart out to get more and better democrats in Congress, win state houses back, and return President Barack Obama to the White House. If we put forth all of our energy and focus on this task, we can finish them as a political party.
Yes We Can !!!