The Republicans have a new meme: that Obama is out to destroy the Republican brand.
This does seem to be their concerted strategy:
Speaker John Boehner gave a speech to a Republican group last week and said that President Obama “was out to annihilate” the Republican Party. Paul Ryan said on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday that Obama was “interested in conquest [of the GOP]. Many other Republican officials have made the same comments. It is like they are reading Rush Limbaugh’s script.
For those of us who paid attention during the last four years, we know how ridiculous this is. Obama has reached out his hand to Republicans over and over again. Unfortunately those who accepted it were treated like lepers by the rest of the Republican party. Anyone remember Charlie Crist? And Dick Lugar? We also know that the Republicans first goal during Obama's first four years was to make him a one-term president.
So it looks like a serious case of projection. Where someone who is suffering from a particular disorder decides that everyone else has that disorder.
It's probably that. But it's more than that (imho). See additional ideas below the fold.
What the Republicans are trying to do is to paint Obama as the big scary, black man. In a way this is a rational approach. Fear has been extremely useful to the Republicans in the last decade. Fear of terrorists; fear of death panels. Fear that someone was coming for their Bibles and their guns.
However, this coin does not work every time. People - especially Republicans - like winners. They show amazingly little empathy for victims. We saw this over and over during the last election cycle. During the Republican primary debates, the Republicans booed those who needed assistance.
Giving Obama the credit for the problems of the Republicans (even though I think the Republicans, who pretend to care about personal responsibility, should take some after their candidates started talking about legitimate rape) only makes him look stronger. This meme is a great one for us, because Republicans, perhaps without even understanding why, will start drifting from their party. They don't want to be associated with victims, especially whiny victims who are losing elections.
Any way to keep this meme going? Or if you disagree, post your thoughts below.
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Tired of politics? Need to escape? Try my Greek mythology based novels, either the story of Oedipus from the point of view of Jocasta, or a trilogy about Niobe, whose children were murdered by the gods - or were they?