One of the key parts of the GOP strategy going forward may be to never, ever say you’re sorry. This fellow (the piece is unsigned) on Unqualified Offerings brought it up in a piece in which he suggests Governor Scott Walker may win the GOP nomination:
Apologizing or even admitting error represents weakness, period. So Mitt Romney titles his campaign book No Apology; Ted Cruz insists the 2013 government shutdown is why the GOP walloped the Democrats in the 2014 elections.
We can also see this in the public flailing about of Governor Mike Pence over the Indiana Religious Restoration Act.
“Over the past week this law has become a subject of great misunderstanding and controversy across our state and nation. However we got here, we are where we are, and it is important that our state take action to address the concerns that have been raised and move forward.”
Or here:
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on Sunday defended his decision to sign a religious freedom bill into law, saying that it was ”absolutely not” a mistake.
In an interview on ABC’s “This Week” the Republican governor repeatedly dodged questions on whether the law would legally allow people of Indiana to refuse service to gay and lesbians, saying that residents of the state are “nice” and don’t discriminate and that “this is about protecting the religious liberty of people of faith and families of faith.”
As a political strategy, you want to say it’s a political miscalculation: adult human beings make mistakes and own up to mistakes; voters will recognize the immaturity (or worse) of the GOP candidates and reject them.
Sadly, I do not think this will be true, because of the underlying assumption of good knowledge, by which I mean everyone is aware of what’s going on and when public mistakes are made. I believe there are two factors at work:
- We’re too busy to keep track of such things. Look at the hours we work – 47 a week, and then there’s all of our “leisure” activities, child care, etc. How many folks keep careful, sober track of the candidates and their performance?
- That’s the jobs of the other side. Not any longer. It’s hard to believe the other side, no matter who they are. The polarization of politics leaves me shaking my head; sure, some are just ridiculous [DailyJot], but when a former Minnesota Rep indulges in ludicrous hyperbole, then I have to doubt anything anybody on either side says. There are precious few with any stature left. Obama I will seriously consider, as I see him as an old-style politician to whom honesty has some weight over Party loyalties; maybe Reid. I’m not even sure of Klobuchar and Franken, my Senators, who generally seem fairly likable. On the GOP side, there’s just no one. They have not cultivated a reputation for honesty, for reasonable analysis.
So this will be the unintended consequence of the GOP culture cultivated over the last couple of decades: they do not have a reputation of honesty, of fair dealing, of mature government (for a glaring example, see the entire Bush years). They have a rep of unreasoning enmity, of extremism, of a failure to acknowledge that their opponents no doubt have the future of the Nation at heart – they just throw mud. As an independent, it’s hard to consider voting for a GOP candidate these days.
No wonder the Millenials evidence little enthusiasm for the GOP.
And the Democrats seem to have a hard time figuring out how to respond to this immaturity.
(Updated misspellings and missing links 21 September 2015)
