GOP Strategy for 2016 Looks Deeply Unsettled
“When 500,000 Latino citizens turn 18 every year and become potential voters, Republicans seem hellbent on lining up and jumping off a demographic cliff,” Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said in a recent speech. “As a Democrat, I should probably just stand back and watch.”
This is why Immigration reform will not pass the House this session and the cycnical reason is that Democrats have no reason, beyond moral, to help Boehner pass it and after the latest fiasco with the Farm Bill he won’t trust them enough to do so. Game out all the various scenarios:
- A majority of House Republicans would have to vote for it in order for Boehner to invoke the Hastert Rule and pass it with Replican suport. Sure, that can happen.
- Boehener can break the Hastert Rule and allow it to pass with a majority of Democrats voting for it and just enough Republicans in order to do so. But that would depend upon him trusting the Democrats who promised to vote for it to do so when the time came; just like with the Farm Bill. And just like the Farm Bill, in order to get any significant Republican votes, additional darconian amendents to the Senate Bill will have to be made. So the Democrats in the House could reasonably argue (but really Cynically) that pulling thier votes at the last minute and leaving Boehner and every Republican who voted or publcially stated that they would support the Bill, with their asses hanging in the wind for every batshit crazy Tee Bagger to take a bite out of.
Immigration Reform is on hold until 2020 and the Republicans are going to have this, as well as Abortion restrictions, opposing a law to fix the Voting Rights Act that SCOTUS will overturn parts of, and oppostion to LGBT Rights in all the states that they now control as a result of other eventual SCOTUS decisions, hanging around thier necks like the dead bird in the “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” in all elections until them!
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican Party’s road map for winning presidential elections looks hazier than ever as GOP lawmakers and others reject what many considered obvious lessons from Mitt Romney’s loss last year.
House Republicans are rebelling against the key recommendation of a party-sanctioned post-mortem: embrace “comprehensive immigration reform” or suffer crippling losses among Hispanic voters in 2016 and beyond.
Widespread rejection of warnings from establishment Republicans goes beyond that, however. Many activists say the party simply needs to articulate its conservative principles more skillfully, without modifying any policies, even after losing the popular vote in five of the past six presidential elections.
Despite Romney’s poor showing among female voters, House Republicans this past week invited renewed Democratic taunts of a “war against women” by passing the most restrictive abortion measure in years.
Despite corporate fears of the economic damage that would result from a default on U.S. obligations, GOP lawmakers are threatening to block an increase in the government’s borrowing limit later this year if President Barack Obama won’t accept spending cuts he staunchly opposes.
Republicans have lots of time to sort out their priorities and pick a nominee before 2016. They may need it.
Party activists appear far from agreed on even basic questions, such as whether to show a more conservative face to voters versus a moderate face, and whether to seek a libertarian-leaning, tea party-backed nominee as opposed to a more traditional Republican such as Romney.
“There are pretty vigorous debates going on within the party,” said Kevin Madden, a top Romney adviser.