Listen up Republicans - you have a problem!

“We’re headed to the point where a political candidate who is perceived as anti-gay at the presidential level will never connect with people under 30 years old,” Ayers said, citing the rapidly changing views on same-sex marriage in America.
Republicans don't need to obsess about how to supress the vote or gerrymander elections. Instead, they're apparently turning voters away, without closing polling stations.

It's hard to believe the Grand Old Party (GOP) that swept the US Congress during the 2014 elections (because Democrats didn't vote!!) are now screwing up their opportunity to lead. 

Instead of moving America forward, by creating jobs, rebuilding deteriorating roads and bridges, and supporting middle class prosperity, they are focused on religous liberty. Hello? What's the point of our US Constitution? Americans already have religious liberty. What our nation really needs is political leadership!

Republicans have a problem. It's called "leadership". For the past several decades, Republicans have managed to get away with leading by creating fear among the electorate. The fears they've created are windmill issues like "welfare" or "Medicaid fraud". 

As a matter of fact, if Professor Howard Hill were a politician, instead of a slick illusionist salesman in "The Music Man", he'd rile up the entire nation, to march all "non-religious people", into the Gulf of Mexico. "Right here in America, I say 'trouble.., right here", said Hill. "Well, ya got trouble, my friend, right here, I say, trouble right here!

Just like in "The Music Man", the electorate believed the Republicans about their ridiculous war on Medicaid, food stamps fraud and other small budget items, like welfare or income assistance.

Except, now the poor people are even "poorer", due to massive cuts to anti poverty programs, so the Republicans quickly needed to trump up new "trouble", by creating the myth of religious liberty. 

In fact, the religious liberty the Republicans created are euphemisms, intended to discriminate against anybody who's "not us", whoever we think we are, or are not.

This time, however, many Americans aren't being quickly tricked into believing the homosexual community and LGBT people are a threat to well being as we knew it, before the GOP "religious liberty" was enforced.

Francine Kiefer a Christian Science Monitor Staff writer reports:

WASHINGTON — At a Monitor breakfast Tuesday, GOP pollster Whit Ayers praised Indiana’s political system for adapting “remarkably quickly” to the “value conflict” that has erupted over its new religious freedom law, which opponents say discriminates against the gay community. The state’s top legislators say they will adjust the law so that discrimination is no longer an issue.

Indiana’s Republican Gov. Mike Pence has come under scathing criticism for his defense of the law. 

Several potential GOP presidential candidates have expressed their support for Governor Pence, including Jeb Bush, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Ben Carson, and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, whom Mr. Ayers is advising. (This will be interesting in 2016)

While a majority of Americans support gay marriage, nearly three-quarters of Republicans do not, according to Gallup. That’s not true for young Republicans, however. More than 60 percent of Republican voters under 30 do support gay marriage, said Ayers, the founder and president of North Star Opinion Research. 

Gay rights is at the bottom of the list of issues for Republican voters, competing with climate change, he pointed out.

When asked what he might advise a candidate, who said he believes in equal rights but thinks marriage ought to be between a man and a woman, Ayers said he would never advise a candidate to alter his or her fundamental beliefs.

But, he said that he would work with the candidate to lay out his or moral beliefs in a way that has “a tolerant and accepting tone.” People will accept candidates with whom they disagree, he said, as long as a candidate doesn’t seem judgmental.

In his view, the Republican Party, “more than anything else,” needs to adopt “a tone and an attitude of inclusion and acceptance” if it wants to take the White House.

Particularly, he’s talking about the demographic necessity of appealing to Hispanic voters in a presidential election, a point he makes in a new book entitled “2016 and Beyond: How Republicans can Elect a President in the New America.”

White voters are shrinking as part of the electorate, he said, and Republicans must make inroads with non-whites. Mitt Romney won only 27 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2012. To win in 2016, a Republican will have to perform in the 40s with Hispanics, Ayers said.

It’s doable with a “transformational” candidate – similar to the way Bill Clinton reversed the Democratic presidential losing streak by going more centrist and having his “Sister Souljah” moment, when he repudiated the hip hop artist. Ayers described his client, Senator Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, as “the most transformational” of all the GOP hopefuls.

To win the presidency, a Republican will have to send a signal to voters who have not recently backed the GOP that “we want them as part of a center-right coalition because it’s better for them and their families and their children,” Ayers asserted.

On immigration, that means “some sort of accommodation” to a broken system.

“It’s safe to say that if your position is that you want to deport 11 million Hispanics, you’re going to find it very difficult to persuade Hispanic voters that we want you in the Republican coalition,” he said.

(Julie's not - remember, Hispanic voters are having children while many traditional Republican voters have stopped reproducing. Consequently, this Republican problem will be multi generational, carried by word of mouth, through close knit families.)

Republicans, you have a problem and it seems like you're quickly being outnumbered, besides.

Louisiana Oil - My Momma Said

An environmental tragedy like the British Petroleum (BP) oil drill fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico lends itself to cliche rationalizations. "What goes around comes around", might be one way of looking at the disaster.

In other words, people who told us this kind of an explosion would eventually happen, were right, after all. Should we be shocked and surprised?

Now, some people in Louisiana and British Petroleum are screaming for the US government to lead the fix and clean up of the environmental catastrophe caused by a methane gas explosion on the off shore oil drill.

Rig workers told BP's internal investigators that the deadly blowout of the oil well in the Gulf of Mexico was triggered by an escaped methane gas bubble that shot toward the surface. Now, oil is spewing into the Gulf uncontrollably from several busted pipes, with no end in sight. BP says Halliburton and other companies should help them to absorb the blame. Corporate finger pointing is now spilling over into a call for the government to fix the problem. It's like asking your mother to come out in the middle of a neighborhood fight to tell the bullies to leave you alone.

We are horrified by the impact of this oil spill on the Louisiana culture and commerce. Fishing is halted in many areas, while oil washes up in sensitive marshes where bird nests are protected.

Pictures of pelicans doused in oil are hard to watch.

Nonetheless, as difficult as this story is to look at every day, I cannot support those trying to drag the US government into taking the lead on the clean up and recovery of the mess. This BP and Halliburton problem is not ours to fix. These two companies supported by all those people who thought they could have it all - environment, high paying jobs, plenty of oil, commerce with tourism and fishing and their quaint Bayou culture. It's a cake with many layers, which is now melting into its own frosting due to the oil rig explosion.

Good people supported the BP off shore oil business because it was a fabulous second or third job for fishermen who subsidized their income by working in both industries. Local merchants enjoyed having the high paying jobs which came with the oil drilling business. It made good economic sense all around.

But, like mother said, "You can't have your cake and eat it too".

Louisiana people who did all they could to keep the government out of their oil business when the wells were drilled, should call on the same companies they supported to get this disastrous mess taken care of, with as little government involvement as possible.

Governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal should be giving marching orders to BP and Halliburton executives to pay up, rather than railing on the US government to fix the problem. Jindal wants to build more barrier islands to hold back the oil spill. So, who will pay for new barrier islands? Tax payers, that's who. I thought Republicans, like Jindal, didn't want the government involved in their business.

Our US government should not be Superman to the rescue. Of course, I'd like to scoop up the oil myself, so it will stop harming wildlife, fishing, a way of life and polluting our environment. But, private sector companies caused this oil explosion by their own negligence, so they should fix it.

Tax payers should provide reasonable support to the Louisiana people.

Nonetheless, the US government should not take the lead in the clean up because, in so doing, the tax payers will give BP exactly what they want - corporate fat cats want their cake so they can eat it too.

I'm appaled by the Louisiana and Gulf of Mexico environmental oil disaster. Still, the spill is a horrible collateral problem caused by greedy corporate oil moguls and those who supported them in their quest for money.

When we did something wrong while growing up, our mother said, "Did you learn your lesson?".

This BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf is a very hard way to learn an environmental lesson.

Email response from Caroline in Virginia: Hi Julie,

An interesting article in the WashPost this weekend talked about the money BP has given to environmental groups. They have all benefited.

Yes, the Republicans and Tea-party nuts what a small federal government. Does this mean they will all go down to the Gulf and lend their support? As I read it, Jindal and the rest want to feds to fix things. You are correct that Halliburton, BP, TransOcean and the others must pay for the repairs and clean-ups. I don't want to hear about the huge profits they will have at the end of the year and the huge bonuses their executives will reap. What a mess!!! Caroline

Julie enjoyed reading Kait's comments posted on line.