Lindsay Graham: "We Lost Young People Because Our Republican Brand Is Tainted"

New York Times:

WASHINGTON -- A fundamental debate broke out among Republicans on Wednesday over how to rebuild the party in the wake of Senator Arlen Specter's departure: Should it purge moderate voices like Mr. Specter and embrace its conservative roots or seek to broaden its appeal to regain a competitive position against Democrats?

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[ProfessorDuh]

You can find the underlying truth here in a fable.
America is the frog who was carrying the Republican Party across the dangerous river on his back, and the Republican Party is the scorpion.

[Virginia Plain]

The brand is not just tainted, Mr. Graham, it is rotten and well past it's "sell-by" date.

[Mustang Sally]

"Our Republican Brand is Trainted". So sayeth one of the primary 'tainters'.

[Jaybot]

It's all marketing and PR with these people, as is always the case when you have a 'product' that is substandard and cant be sold on its own merits.

[lesterbud]

We have close friends, lovely people, that have always voted Republican because they believed that party better represented their Christian values and dedication to freedom. They went to church reglularly and were, by there own admission, given weekly doses of anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-liberal, anti-Democratic dogma. They told me the real heavy rhetoric was laid down during weeknight bible studies and church workshops where there was no pressure of being in public. That is where the evil of gay marriage was discussed with open disgust. That is where the negative influence of minorities and their cultures of drugs and violence were ingrained.

They are slowly working their way out of this sub-culture of self-supported hate and bigotry, but they have close ties and friendships with these people. They voted for Obama, reluctantly admitted it, and were shunned - helping them to pull away further.

Because we all want so much to belong to groups that support our beliefs, however wrong-minded and hurtful they might be, it is easy to get sucked into these subcultures and to then defend them violently. What we are seeing in the downfall of the Republican party is the slow collapse of these supporting organizations and their unappealing and unsupportable dogmas. You can't draw large numbers of young people because they simply know that hatred and fear is wrong. You can't attract minorities because they understand and abhor hypocrisy. So as the old white base dies off, so does the party.

[Mustang Sally]

Thank you for that thoughtful and somewhat disturbing look into that culture. I hope your friends find a congregation more in tune with their emerging humanistic views.

[ProfessorDuh]

Republicans are like pythons who have swallowed a large cow of right-wing propaganda. They remain intellectually immobilized, simply trying to digest it.

[ProfessorDuh]

Willful ignorance may well make you feel nice and cozy, but it has its price. A steep one,

[dax49]

since this guys last original thought was how he wanted his pork chop cooked, mccain must have told him that

[Vyvjala]

The GOP's self serving, "its our way or the highway," means of taking care of business has run it's coarse and now the party of, "NO," must reap what they've sowed.

[WhiteHat]

When Republicans start talking about improving America instead of improving the GOP, then they might have a chance at the polls. But they're apparently all too stupid to see even that simple fact.

[ProfessorDuh]

They've never been interested in improving America, only in amassing power and lining their pockets at the expense of the people they fleece. Sometimes, like now, the mask slips and they reveal their scorpion natures.

[Mustang Sally]

Second that.

[ProfessorDuh]

Paddy Chayefsky could not have described the contemporary Republican Party in a satire 25 years ago. Everybody would have said it's too outlandish, corrupt and aggressively ignorant to be believed.

[mouselion]

You can't lose what you didn't have to begin with.

[tomasedison]

Goopers are like bad fish without refrigeration for three days.

[IcedTee63]

The Rupublican Party has become the Party of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hanity, Joe the Plumber, Sarah Palin, Tea Parties, Michelle Bachman and Virginia Fox, no wonder no one under 30 is interested in their brand!

[yweston]

One problem I have with the Republican Party is they talk about "freedom". Well whose freedom. They want to limit the "rights" of gay people and outlaw the freedom of choice for woman when it comes to their bodies.
From my perspective the only "freedoms" they want to protect are those of "white America" especially "white men".

[dem 01]

...because, it is f.. corrupt !

[JC1c1]

No the republicans lost the 30 and unders bc you they allow things to go on at rallies by yelling racist slurs, by having someone like Sarah Palin become a large voice in the party. The young vote wasnt going to republicans anyways, but by what we saw at the rallies, it just confirmed for us that we made the right choice.

A party that shows no room and only hatred to those who dont look or act like them. The party that judges someone on thier race, religion, gender or sexual preference, but claims to be religious and morally right. To the republican party, we are not idiots. We see you talk about God, and in the next sentence spew hatred for those who are unlike you. That is why you did not get our vote.

Plus well face it, Obama vs McCain. Well it explains itself.