GOP rebranding fail

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

After the 2012 election "autopsy," the GOP decided that it would rebrand itself with fancy "new and improved!" packaging and soft-sell messaging, all the while retaining its poisonous product inside the box that it is selling to an unsuspecting public. So how's that working out?

Just last week RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, the guy who told Republicans that they need to stop being stupid and to "tone down the language" about things like "legitimate rape," returned to the GOP war on women with another attack on Planned Parenthood and Democrats. Priebus suggests Obama, Democrats 'endorse infanticide'. This is "toning down the language"?

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus suggested
that Democrats "endorse infanticide" by supporting women's
health provider Planned Parenthood.

In an op-ed posted on the conservative site RedState,
Priebus highlights movements made by state legislatures in North Dakota
and Florida over the past week to restrict abortion rights. And he
targets President Obama, congressional Democratic leaders and party
officials over their support for Planned Parenthood.

By the way, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines "infanticide" as "one who kills an infant," i.e., the killing of a newborn, as it has been commonly understood since the 17th Century. The anti-abortion fetus fetish crowd wants to broadly expand this definition to include a fertilized egg from the moment of conception for their "personhood" bill that would give a fetilized egg/zygote/fetus constitutional rights which supercede the constitutional rights of the host adult female mother, rendering her a second class citizen by condition of pregnancy — a deprivation of rights no man would ever suffer.

Funding for Planned Parenthood was a focal point of the 2012 election
for both parties as they looked to sway female voters. Obama won the women's vote by 10 percentage points.

Unchastened, the GOP has responded with renewed
efforts to restrict abortion rights in a number of red states. The GOP sees opposition to Planned Parenthood as a potentially winning
argument in the 2014 election cycle, despite the results of the 2012 election. In Just Three Months, States Proposed An Astonishing 694 Provisions About Reproduction.

The GOP had also decided it was time to soften its image with gays in light of the tidal shift in public opinion in support of marriage equality. But at a retreat in Sodom and Gomorrah Hollywood, California on Thursday, the Republican National
Committee caved to pressure from social conservatives and unanimously approved a number of resolutions without any debate, including one opposing same-sex marriage. Republicans Unanimously Approve Anti-Marriage Equality Resolution Without Debate:

As ThinkProgress reported Wednesday, this resolution is based entirely on debunked junk science and assumptions that heterosexual relationships are objectively superior to same-sex couples. Here is some of the text:

WHEREAS, the institution of marriage is the solid foundation upon which our society is built and in which children thrive; it is based in the conjugal relationship that only a man and a woman can form; […]

WHEREAS, no Act of human government can change the reality that
marriage is a natural and most desirable union; especially when
procreation is a goal; […] therefore be it

RESOLVED, the Republican national Committee affirms its
support for marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and as the
optimum environment in which to raise healthy children for the future of
America.

A second resolution reaffirming the party’s 2012 platform included a similar provision opposing same-sex marriage:

WHEREAS, the 2012 Republican Platform states, “We believe
that marriage, the union of one man and one woman must be upheld as the
national standard, a goal to stand for, encourage, and promote through
laws governing marriage.”

Last month, as part of its autopsy of the 2012 election, Republicans announced their intention to tone down — though not alter — their opposition to LGBT equality by sugarcoating how they discuss those positions. Adoption of these resolutions followed threats this week from social conservative groups that they would no longer support the GOP
if the party didn’t stand strong, and even take guidance, from them on
issues like same-sex marriage and abortion. In particular, the Family
Research Council urged supporters not to give money to the GOP if it didn’t “grow a backbone.”

Stuck between this rock (trying to recruit young people) and hard
place (depending on social conservatives), the Republicans seem to have
reverted to their same old positions.

The GOP is on the wrong side of history. As I have said many times before, "this is not your father's GOP." The Republican Party is a carcass hollowed out by its far-right parasite fringe, and has been hijacked by radical extremists. They should drop all pretense and call the party for what it actually represents, the Theocratic Party.

"Abraham Lincoln called, he wants his party back."