The chief flaw of the GOP -- as well as the source of its greatest pragmatic strength -- is the inherent deceit. The conservative powers that be know damn well there are a lot more people in this country who are not millionaires, than who are. And in order to prevent rich people from paying taxes in a democracy, support from many more than just rich people is necessary.
Knowledge has been called the enemy of religion. You can and should add the GOP to the list of those victimized by education and comprehension. Republicans, understandably, complain of the overwhelming liberal bias of our universities. Indeed, a clear majority of the nation's university professors are Democrats, and these centers of higher education and understanding are frequently hubs of liberal activism.
That's important to appreciate; the most learned people and places we have are predominantly liberal. Can anybody think of another demographic of people who would have a better and more accurate understanding of the workings and results of the political systems than those who are, almost by definition, the most knowledgeable?
Actually, there might be one demographic in a better position to better judge and evaluate politics. The people whose professional job it is to follow the news. The most politically well-informed segment there is: the news media. Of course, members of the so-called "mainstream media" are also well known for, more often than not, their Democratic voting record.
Because these pursuers and promoters of truth and accuracy more often than not tend to have a personal liberal bias. The truth is, the truth tends to have a liberal bias. As such, the conservative wing of the media is forced to provide the most biased and misleading reporting in order to gain support. If Americans better understood political truth and policy, that would surely signal a death knell for the Republican Party.
For years it has been an accepted fact that the Fox News Channel is fundamentally propaganda for the extremely conservative wing of the Republican party. The "news" channel comically offers slogans such as "Fair and Balanced," and "We Report, You Decide," but... that isn't true. They decide for their noticeably, maybe alarmingly, impressionable viewers.
They understand the liberal bias of facts, and so they need to redefine truth. And they have largely succeeded, in that the Fox News Channel's ratings are higher than those if its two competitors, CNN and MSNBC, combined. Fox has become very effective at "educating" its viewers to believe untruths, indeed. It has been demonstrated that, "Fox News makes you stupid." And, "The more Fox News you watch, the stupider you get."
Let's momentarily digress and listen to Donald Trump. He may embarrass the mainstream GOP, but he is also their poster boy of sorts. If you listen to his presidential rumblings and ramblings, much of what he says could make sense to a person who knows nothing else. And he has quickly risen to the top of preliminary polls among GOP backers.
An effective Republican strategy has long been to put aside those biased facts and rational argumentation, and prey on the troublesome fact that many, many American voters are... unsophisticated (before you accuse me of being "elitist," tell me what percentage of likely voters believe President Obama may be a native Kenyan). But every person's vote counts the same, and the GOP looks to make impassioned outreach, understanding an emotionally invested person turns into the most blindly loyal type of voter there is.
A perfect case in point is the cornerstone of conservative social values: abortion. Who really believes conservative leaders really care one way or the other? Heck, abortion is nothing if not logically and fiscally conservative. But, all else being equal, which is a better rallying cry: stop inconveniencing the richest of the rich and slash corporate taxes, or stop murdering millions of innocent babies when they are at their most vulnerable?
GE made billions last year, and paid no tax. Zero dollars. How could anybody expect a hundred million people to rally around that idea? But, who doesn't love a cute baby? Those callous, murderous liberals, that's who! Once you have successfully painted the left as widespread and non-repentant slaughterers of the unborn, for instance, then rest assured, whatever else they say will inherently be wrong. That's how you trick the everyday, God-fearing Americans (it's no coincidence that Republicans long ago declared their own disingenuous blind loyalty to Jesus Christ) into understanding that the more money a person earns, the more important it is for the rest of us that the wealthy be rewarded for their success in the form of not paying taxes.
Or would a reliable conservative label you a loony liberal dedicated to infanticide, one who despises America and abandoned the one true God, our Lord and savior Jesus Christ?