The Republican Party of Today
First thing I noticed was when President Obama came into office in 2009 the Republican party had a meeting and they decided no matter what President Obama proposes they are going to say no. They even said no some of their old ideas like Obama-care which is nothing but Bob Dole’s old health care plan from 1994 and Cap and Trade which they were once for now they’re against it. Keep in mind President Obama is not a progressive or even a liberal he’s a centrist. I would even say he’s center right. When it comes to cutting spending the Republican party has really won that battle. Now I know they don’t want to hear this but spending under this President hasn’t been this low since Eisenhower and last time I checked he was a Republican. And keep in mind in 2011 when we were so close to not raising the debt ceiling the final agreement was nothing but cuts no revenue what so ever. It’s funny how the Republican party get so obsessed over spending and the debt when a Democrat is in the White House.
The Republican party has to realize that the demographics of this country are changing and it doesn’t look good for them. Proof of this was the 2012 election and inside of what I like to call the Republican bubble where they don’t like to hear the facts about anything and the party still doesn’t understand what they need to do in order to be a bigger tent party. And since the Supreme court had just struck down the section 4 of the Voting Right Act a lot of the red states in the south can pass any voter suppression laws as they see fit and not have to worry about the Federal government having to approve or deny a voting law that they might want to implement in their state. I noticed a lot of the red states did not waste anytime in passing those voter suppression laws after the Supreme court decision. Immigration reform is definitely something that the Republicans need to have done more than anything else. Hispanics are the fastest growing demographic and if this party wants to win anymore elections in the future this is something that they need to get behind. But the problem with the party is the base of the Republican party the extreme right wing section of the Republican party or aka the Tea party. This extreme wing of the Republican party is the reason in my opinion that the party cannot move forward because in their minds if they decide to go through with Immigration reform they are just bringing more democratic voters and that’s something they just do not like. It’s the browning of America is what they fear the most. The base of the party is older and whiter and in their world the country is changing right before their eyes and President Obama is the symbol of that change and they don’t like it.
Women reproductive rights is something else the Republicans have been obsessing over big time over the past couple of years. Many should pay special attention to what the Republicans has been doing in the states where they are the majority. They have been passing laws that would shut down abortion clinics. Passing bills that would ban abortion after 20 weeks, trying to defund Planned Parenthood and making it harder for women to have access to birth control. Gee no wonder why women vote for the Democrats over the Republicans. Women are a very important part of the electorate and if we had more females in government I don’t think that we would be debating whether or not women should have access to birth control or abortions.
And lets not forget how this country got into this fiscal mess in the first place and there’s plenty of blame to go around with both the Democrats and the Republicans but the conservatives should get most of the blame. I hate to say this to Republicans but their hero Ronald Reagan was the one who started the idea of deregulation and he’s the one responsible for taking the marginal tax rate from 70% down to 28%. Bill Clinton repealed Glass- Steagall which supposed to separate the commercial banks from the investment banks. I would also point out that people like Bob Rubin,Tim Geithner, Larry Summers and Alan Greenspan and many others who also made this mess happen. The Republican party needs to take a real good look at themselves and make some serious changes as a party if they want to win anymore elections especially if they want to win back the White House again. If they don’t change their attitude then the party won’t be national party anymore in my opinion they would be a regional party who only appeals to the small section of the population.
