The big problem for Republicans is that the primary cause of the declining white share of the electorate is demographic change, not high black turnout. Demographic changes have been so significant that the Obama coalition would survive a return to '04 turnout rates. If minorities had turned out in 2012 at 2004 levels, whites would have represented 74.8 percent of the electorate--1 point higher than the actual 2012 electorate, but 4.4 points lower than 2004's electorate, which was 79.2 percent white. If all voters turned out at '04 levels--which increases white turnout and decreases minority turnout--whites would represent 75.6 percent of the electorate. That's nearly 2 points higher than 2012, but it's still even more diverse than the supposedly historic 2008 electorate, when whites represented 76.2 percent of the vote.
Unfortunately, Republicans of the pedigree needed to save the Party from itself are in one way or another either marginalized or falling by the wayside. Ironically, one of the marginalized happens to be Priebus' predecessor, Michael Steele , who -- due to his massive token value as an African-American -- would come in mighty handy right about now had they not ingloriously deep-sixed his ass in 2011. Others on the margins include Chris Christie , Bob McDonnell, and even Marco Rubio , each of whom has been queued up for the plank by the crazies. Some, like the late Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Kansas State Senator Jean Schodorf were chased off to the Democratic Party , and others were cast off into political obscurity the way spellbinding former part-time wiccan priestess turned Sarah Palin doppelganger Christine O'Donnell handled Delaware's Mike Castle. Still others, including Kay Bailey Hutchison, Jim Jeffords, Olympia Snow, and Susan Collins just said "fuckit" and simply quit to avoid being bagged by Tea Party " RINO " hunters .
So, indeed, as the New Republic piece points out, the GOP faces a "big problem" -- a sticky predicament that prompts an obvious question: How can a Harry Houdini-era Republican Party David Blaine itself out of the social and demographic steel trap in which it now finds itself? Apparently, it's a dose of Criss Angel -- in other words, the same old bullshit presented in an oddly-packaged form. Rather than a set of well thought-out proposals to restore his Party's future political viability, Priebus' minority outreach strategy seems more like a blind caper concocted by a five time loser. I'm referring specifically to the part that recommends slathering over the ugly philosophical warts dotting the Party's posterior with $10 million dollars worth of makeup of a different shade. "Repackaging" is among the less-than-clever euphemisms Priebus and others are using from an arsenal of subterfuge to support yet another false display of the GOP's fundamentally synthetic diversity.
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