It seems
that whenever you read the news, the GOP is being ridiculed. The Republican
Party is not being laughed in the press because of what they believe. Most known for
their belief in the free market, the belief in pro-life and their opposition to
gay marriage, Republicans do have legitimacy to back up their claims and actual reasons for why they believe these things. However,
the way you see Republicans act in the public eye makes their party appear to
be out of touch. It seems that every time a Republican opens their mouth, they
are putting another nail in their coffin of an already isolated party.
As I am
sure you all have read, Mitt Romney made comments a couple of weeks ago that
suggested that 47% of people voting for Obama believe that they are entitled to
handouts on government programs and also don’t pay income taxes. Regardless of
what the 47% of Obama voters believe or don’t believe, the way that Romney went
about this comment simply made him look like an idiot. In a way to somehow
“defend” his comments, Romney stated that "It's not elegantly stated, let me put it
that way," Romney said. "I'm speaking off the cuff in response to a
question, and I'm sure I can state it more clearly in a more effective way than
I did in a setting like that and so I'm sure I'll point that out as time goes
on."
Unfortunately, carrying on and continuing this
message in this exact way will isolate him from voters even more than his party
members have. Instead of simply stating that he believes that there should be
less funding for government programs or that everyone should pay taxes, he
attacked voters and essentially claimed that they were lazy. This is an example
of not WHAT he said, but HOW he said it.
Yet another example of a Republican
that has stated his beliefs in an idiotic way comes in the form of US Rep Todd
Akin. He does not believe in abortion in cases of rape. Akin kindly gave voters
a health lesson by backing up his ideas through the fact that: "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down," Akin continued. He did not provide an explanation for what constituted "legitimate rape."
It is clear that Akin has no idea what he is
talking about. There is no way that a woman’s body is simply able to “shut that
whole thing down” (which in itself is not an eloquently stated sentence). A
woman can get pregnant regardless of if she wants to or if she is a victim of
rape. It is one thing to not believe in abortion- his idea is that the
punishment should be on the rapist, not the child- but it is another thing to
back it up with a completely untrue statement that is unsupportive of women who
are struggling. It is hilarious to watch him try to teach us something, as if
none of us know what rape is or how the human body works.
Looking at past Republican leaders,
we can find some hilarity in some of the things George Bush has said. Bush
continually isolated many of his constituents throughout his time in office
because of his bible-thumping ways. When discussing the war in the Middle East,
George W. Bush claimed that 'I am driven with a mission from God'. God would tell me, 'George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan'. And I did. And then God would tell me 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq'. And I did."
A president can’t simply back up
his plan to go to war by saying God told him to do it. God may very well have
told him to do it, but it is not a valid explanation to a country full of
people that don’t practice the same religion. It isn’t the fact that we went to
war that is ridiculous- after all, Democrats and Republicans alike voted for
the resolution that allowed the President to send troops to the Middle East-
it’s what he uses to back it up that is. By throwing God into the mix, it shows
how completely out of touch with the public he truly was. The fact that he
blatantly did not separate church and state that made this statement so
embarrassing. It is fine that he believes we should go to war, but don’t use
God as the reason.
It is not what the Republicans are
saying that is so offensive, but the way they are saying it. You can agree with almost everything the
Republican party says, but you must admit that they have had a series of public
missteps this past year and in the years before (i.e. nearly everything Sarah
Palin has said for the past 5 years) that is slowly making them less legitimate
and making more and more people question them. If the Republicans want a shot
at winning this presidential election, or future presidential elections, it is
important for them to not make these embarrassing missteps. Each misstep they
make is simply another nail in the GOPs coffin.
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