Republican self-diagnosis of their problems seems about as misguided as their economic and regulatory policies.
“The party has simply not understood the importance of having highly visible black Republican operatives, elected officials and political spokespersons working for it on an ongoing basis,” adds an African American who worked for the Republican National Committee during the administration of the first President Bush. “It’s not our message as much as it is our messengers that are killing us.”
This was the logic that led to Sarah Palin being picked as the running mate for John McCain, if someone is kind of cute and folksy they can say stupid crap and everyone will believe them. This formula sort of worked with Reagan, they had a nice grandfatherly type say and do some mean hateful things and everyone went along with it, as nobody wants to disagree with a cute old man, even when he is a senile old fool.
Republicans seem to think the only reason Obama won this past election was his skin color, not that he offered real solutions to real problems. Republicans have become so deeply mired in identity politics they seem to think everyone else is all about identity and not about issues. As the country grows more sophisticated the number of people who vote for a candidate because that candidate looks or acts like them will get smaller and smaller. At this rate I think the Republicans can look forward to many years of being the minority party. And I don’t mean the party of minorities just the party without much say in governing, which fits given Republicans and conservatives as a whole don’t believe in governance.