Last week it was Republican strategist Steve Schmidt blaming Mitt Romney's loss on conservative "loons and wackos," [1] this week on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, fellow Republican strategist Mike Murphy joined the media chorus demanding the GOP move left: "...if we don't modernize conservatism, we can go extinct....we've got to get kind of a party view of America that's not right out of Rush Limbaugh's dream journal." [Listen to the audio [2]]
Murphy explained how to "modernize" the party: "We alienate young voters because of gay marriage, we have a policy problem. We alienate Latinos – the fastest growing voter group in the country, because of our fetish on so-called amnesty....It's a fundamental rethink that begins with policy..." Moments later, he asserted: "...the biggest problem Mitt Romney had was the Republican primary. That's what's driving the Republican brand right now to a disaster."
Here is a transcript of Murphy's November 18 analysis:
DAVID GREGORY: Mike Murphy, the fallout from Mitt Romney's discussion that basically Obama gave gifts to minority groups, that's how he got re-elected. This is the time when the party is trying to figure out where it's going.
MIKE MURPHY: Well, unfortunate comment. I think we ought to have a rule that if you lose a presidential election, you know, you get a pass for a week because it's like a bender you're coming off of.
GREGORY: Yeah. And don't talk to donors.
MURPHY: I – I – well, yeah, you know, look there's a huge donor revolt going on. I mean, look, we have now lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections. This is a existential crisis for the Republican Party, and we have to have a brutal discussion about it. We alienate young voters because of gay marriage, we have a policy problem. We alienate Latinos – the fastest growing voter group in the country, because of our fetish on so-called amnesty, when we should be for a path to immigration. And we've lost our connection to middle-class economics. We also have an operative class and unfortunately a lot of which is incompetent. We don't know how to win. So, this isn't about new software in the basement of the RNC. It's not about a few Spanish language radio ads. It's a fundamental rethink that begins with policy because the country is changing and if we don't modernize conservatism, we can go extinct. The numbers are the numbers.
(...)
I want to quickly respond to one thing because it's very fashionable now to beat up Romney and – and he made an unfortunate comment after the election. But the biggest problem Mitt Romney had was the Republican primary. That's what's driving the Republican brand right now to a disaster. And we've got to get kind of a party view of America that's not right out of Rush Limbaugh's dream journal. We got to look at reality.
-- Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow him on Twitter [3].