Crossposted at immizen.com and another take on Kos' article.
Unlike their old Republican counterparts, who forecast doom after every breath Obama takes, the young Republicans, as reported by an interesting NYT article, forecast the doom of the Republican party itself.
What is a young Republican to do? And what are they if not a misguided rarity in the party of old white men? The GOP is already obsolete. They just don't know it. That's how out of touch they are. Their appeal is only for the hate mongers like Limbaugh and the stupid like Perry and the nuts who think Obama is the Muslim born in Kenya. Reality is catching up with many of them and when all the veneer of civility has finally been eroded and that last Republican with a brain can see the emperor has no clothes, the GOP will be known as Zombieland!
While the NYT article focuses on the Stone Age campaign strategies of the GOP and compares them to Obama’s modern Twitter and Reddit media savvy approaches, they also shine a light on the other preoccupying GOP branding patterns of quickly diminishing public opinion.
The NYT reports that the young Republicans held two sessions with two focus groups. The first consisted of 10 single, middle-class women in their 20s; the second, of 10 20-something men who were either jobless or employed but seeking better work. All of them voted for Obama but did not identify themselves as committed Democrats and were sufficiently ambivalent about the president’s performance that they were deemed within reach of the Republicans. When these groups were asked to call out words that they associate with “Democrat”, the women group chose the words “Young people,” “Liberal”, “Diverse”, “Bill Clinton”, “Change”, “Open-minded”, “Spending”, “Handouts”, “Green”, “More science-based”.
But then, the outburst of words they associated with “Republican” was immediate and vehement:
“Corporate greed.”“Old.” “Middle-aged white men.” “Rich.” “Religious.” “Conservative.” “Hypocritical.” “Military retirees.” “Narrow-minded.” “Rigid.” “Not progressive.” “Polarizing.” “Stuck in their ways.” “Farmers.”
The session with the young men was equally jarring. None of them expressed great enthusiasm for Obama. But their depiction of Republicans was even more lacerating than the women’s had been. “Racist,” “out of touch” and “hateful” made the list — “and put ‘1950s’ on there too!” one called out.
The news du jour for Republicans gets worse.
The Business Insider just reported today the results of two brutal new polls for Republicans that show that President Barack Obama's approval rating has hit a three-plus-year high, while
the approval rating of Congressional Republicans has sunk to a corresponding low, and according to a new Pew poll,
49 percent would blame Republicans if the sequester cuts take effect, compared with just 31 percent for Obama.
The NYT article cited above, while an interesting read, fails to reach the obvious conclusion: that the GOP is losing the public opinion battle, losing relevance, not because of their lack of technology know-how, but rather because of their pre-civil war beliefs and values. Their technology approach is just as old as their ideas. They are the party of the past. Dead. When you see people who show signs of life within the GOP, remember those horror movies that make fun of the walking dead.