Can Republicans Rebrand? - Page 3
Then there is Marco Rubio, Republican’s Great Latin Hope. He rose to state office on a phony Cuban exile story and has some shady financial dealings in his past. (In fairness to Rubio, it may have been his Grandfather who made up the exile story.) Rubio doesn’t seem to have the “stones” to play on the national stage. And his state, Florida, is also poised to become solidly blue. Republicans even lost the rock-reliable Cuban community this election.
The field gets weaker from there. The party’s past practices have made for a shallow pool of non-white players.
So despite the news of this day, being the party of the rich is the least of Republican’s problems. People forget the ins and outs of economic policy between election cycles. But families take a lot longer to forget racism, sexism, voter suppression and demonization of their ethnicity. Those cuts run deep and they are long lasting.
In the end, the Republican Party relied on the Southern Strategy for perhaps a decade too long. Then they allowed their most undereducated mouth breathers to have a platform. The organized and widespread attempt – and failure – at voter suppression was the last straw. These mistakes will be a lot harder to fix than being rich-centric. They won’t be fixed in one or two election cycles.
In the meantime, rich people should expect to pay a price for their bad choices and bad acts. They cheated and they got caught. We can each decide for ourselves whether that seems fair or not.
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