GOP Moving Further Right

There have been numerous recent signs that the Republican Party is responding to a string of national election losses by moving even further to the right.  A recent Pew Research poll showed that a majority of self-identified Republican voters want the GOP to become more conservative. Sahil Kapur reports in Talking Points Memo that Republicans on capital hill are feeling pressure from constituents to pull out all stops to prevent the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, including a government shut-down or default.

My response to the Republicans? It's your funeral.

The GOP's own report following its 2012 election losses noted that demographic trends are not in the party's favor.  The groups making up the Republican base (old, rural, wealthy, white men) are shrinking while those tending to vote Democrat (women, minorities, younger voters of all ethnicities) are not only growing but growing fastest of all demographic groups. If I was a Republican, I would be most worried about losing ground with that last group (young voters) who have been found to describe the party in extremely negative terms.

During the whiteboard drill, every focus group described Democrats as “open-minded” and Republicans as “rigid.”  

 

“There is a brand,” the 28-year-old pollster (Kristen Soltis Anderson) concluded of her party with clinical finality. “And it’s that we’re not in the 21st century.”

 

Yet the party's base continues to demand that the GOP ramp up its campaign to turn the clock back.  This looks like a death spiral to me.