Clark County GOP in Denial

Losing a loved one can be a traumatic experience, and local Republicans clearly lost the electorate, who decided to go to the prom with the better looking Democratic party.

Michael Andersen at The Columbian writes about Democrats gaining the upper hand in Clark County and gets a few statements from local Republicans that exhibit the initial stage of grief, Denial:

Ryan Hart, chairman of the local Republican Party, said he was dismayed by Republican losses in the district.

But he didn’t think his party will need to change its message to reverse them.

[...]

“I think that this is still a center-right country,” Hart said. “We have a message that reflects the majority of the electorate. … We just need to find candidates that can clearly articulate that message.”

It's not my business to dole out advice to Republicans, but the overinflated confidence of these statements in light of facts on the ground deserves a response. The fact is, voters know that conservative ideas are a complete and abject failure, and that's why they're voting Republicans out in two successive elections.

The fact that an African-American candidate outperformed the Bush-Cheney ticket of 2004 in predominately white suburban swing Clark County should be providing Republicans a wake up call that their message of divisiveness and economic plutocracy is no longer welcome. We don't want government interference in our personal lives, but we do want a leg up when it comes to educational opportunities in the global marketplace. Thankfully for Democrats, Republicans don't seem to ken the concept.

I'm looking forward to the Party of Palin making a run at 2012, fielding candidates up and down the ticket that are completely incurious about the world around them, or think that Africa is a country. You can call that level of ignorance the "real America" all you want, but Americans are smarter than that.