"Soul searching" requires a soul

After the recent election, there were many reports in the media about how the Republican Party was completely gobsmacked, blind-sided by the election results. They really believed they were going to win and win big and couldn't understand how they didn't. So, there began a period of "soul searching." They were going to analyze why they lost and fix the problem.

They lost because they were only able to appeal to one demographic - old white people. (Full disclosure: I am one, but I'm an exception - and there are plenty of us old liberals. They didn't appeal to us.) They lost every other demographic in the country. Their base is angry old white men and there are fewer and fewer of them. If the Republicans cannot expand their appeal, their party will die along with its base, not unlike the Whigs before them.

Some Republicans have sort of acknowledged this and have made half-hearted statements about how their party needs to embrace immigration reform and soft-petal all that talk about banning abortion and contraception and how women should be grateful for their rape babies. They give lip service to the idea that they need more diversity in their leadership. Then they actually choose their leaders and this is what we get:

These are the faces of the nineteen chairmen of committees in the House of Representatives chosen by Speaker John Boehner. There are two more committee chairmen that have not yet been selected, but the faces of the only candidates look just like the ones above. So, in the Republican controlled House of Representatives (234 Republicans to 201 Democrats), all of the chairmen of committees will be middle-aged to old white men, many of whom, quite frankly, are batshit crazy.

So much for diversity.

And so much for soul searching. Of course, soul searching first requires a soul.

'Nuff said.

UPDATE: Well that ought to solve the problem! Not.

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