The piece concludes:

Still, gay Republicans feel excluded from most conservative corners, including the high-profile CPAC conference last month that will showcase likely presidential contenders and other rising stars in the party. Angelo said the Log Cabin Republicans have asked to participate in the past but didn't this year because it prefers to "choose its battles." Another gay group, GOProud, was barred from last year's event after some social conservatives boycotted.

"If people are concerned about the future of the conservative movement, they know we need to broaden our appeal," said the group's executive director Jimmy LaSalvia. "They need to deal with the political reality of this issue, and beating the drum against gay marriage is a political loser."

Agreed, Hagbard. It's really linked to the basic argument Thomas Frank lays out in What's the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America.

"DOC do you belong to some "Republicans suck" news feed?A"

I understand the truth must be a terrible thing for you to face each day, and I sympathize. If I belonged to a prayer circle I'd gladly give you some bandwidth.

Panecon, what makes your bleats (unintentionally) hilarious is that much of what I've posted recently comes from - wait for it, kid, wait for it - Republicans.

Not your kind of Republicans, to be sure. But Republicans in the sense of informed, intelligent, aware folk who realize the loons have transformed their formerly legitimate political vehicle into a risible Klown Kar and driven it into a swamp.

Agreed, Hagbard. It's really linked to the basic argument Thomas Frank lays out in What's the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. #3 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis

I read that one. I think they're actually okay with that. They're able to control things on the local level and can keep doing what they do nationally as long as they filter that through the language of across the aisle cooperation.
#8 | Posted by Hagbard_Celine

Absolutely. Look at, well, Kansas. The people in the state with a government run by Brownbackers appear to be cruising for one hell of bruising. Seize control of the party apparatus at the the localized level in a state where one party has long exerted control and you have the makings of either a renaissance of a collapsed souffle. In this case, it's the latter.

Like slavery, Jim Crow laws, Women's suffrage, Civil Rights Act of 1964?
#12 | Posted by paneocon

Slavery? You mean, as in nearly 150 years ago?

Jim Crow laws? You mean the stuff the Southerners put into effect when the GOP abandoned the former slaves to the not so tender mercies of their former masters in order to win the corrupted 1876 presidential election?

Civil Rights Act? That the same one LBJ said him signing would lose the South for the Democrats?

Puhleeeeeze.

Those Southern Democrats are now, for the most part, Republicans. Google "Lee Atwater" and the n-word and see what pops up.

left wing hacks who happen to call themselves Republicans'
#13 | Posted by KBM

Michael Gerson, David Frum, and Peter Wehner are "left wing hacks who happen to call themselves Republicans"?

Sounds like you've been sucking up too much Sterno, kid.

Those Southern Democrats are now, for the most part, Republicans. Google "Lee Atwater" and the n-word and see what pops up.
#17 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis

Yes "your" big government republicans. New boss same as the old boss.
#19 | Posted by paneocon

So Lee Atwater, Ronald Reagan water carrier, was a "big government republican"?

I'm waiting for the day - and I sense it may be coming - where people like you actually come out and denounce Reagan for being insufficiently Republican.

ZED -

I've seen posters here - I think Paneocon was one of them - blame the Democrats for George Bush, because they didn't put up a candidate who could beat the Republican.

male/male, female/female, male/male/female, female/female/male, dog/cat, donkey/horse, transvestite/transgender...
#24 | Posted by matsop

All those possibilities, they just keep spinning around in your head, don't they?

I'm only going to say this one more time: those brownish opaque plastic pill bottles on the tv tray in front of you? Check out the "use-by" dates. Seriously. It's important.

daily self-flagellation and masochistic excitement.
#26 | Posted by matsop

Really, those dates. They're important.

there's more to life then being hunched over your computer keys in your cave sipping peppermint schnapps through a straw with only 2 recurring thoughts running through the narrow fibers of the remaining 2 neurons between your 2 atrophied cerebri.
#30 | Posted by matsop

That's why I keep telling you to push that tv tray aside, hoik yourself up out of the tatty barcalounger recliner, dust off your lounge lizzard sweatsuit, stagger outside and get a whiff of fresh air.

Somebody should've told you the Barcalounger-puffy tracksuit-Cheetos-tv tray combo wasn't good for you, longterm.

"I don't hate Demonrats/lefties but feel genuine compassion toward them since they've either been afflicted with an incurable disease and/or are genetically challenged..."

"Pure and simple brain damage."

You guys have become caricatures of bewildered rubes, as you cope (poorly) with the vagaries of the Kübler-Ross model.

It's sad, reading your pouts, but in an amusing, schadenfreudish sort of way.

#35 | Posted by matsop
#38 | Posted by paneocon

The bloviating Waldorf and bleating Statler of the DR Muppet show.

With a base composed of the likes of Matsop and Paneocon - who can't even cope with the idea that the party faces existential threats to which it isn't responding well - the poor GOP doesn't stand a chance at the national level.

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
#46 | Posted by CalifChris

Or, as George Bush put it:

"There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again." '

Riiiight, the party gets drubbed nationally because not enough of the faithful turn out to vote.

If there was more ideological purity with the national ticket, those stay-at-homers would turn out in droves and there'd be an electoral triumph.

LOL

;>)

"We are not looking for Ideological purity, only a seat at the table."

A seat at the table? After you guys insisted Romney drive the Klown Kar so far to the right the chitty-chitty-bang-banger careened off the road and vaulted into a slurry lagoon from which you've yet to even begin to start to commence to think about extricating yourselves?

I'd no idea this buffoonery was going to be such a long-running show. Better get some more popcorn.

"If you build it, he will come."

The Democrats have figured out how to govern with out angering its base why can't the RNC do the same?
#56 | Posted by paneocon

A dubious proposition, at best I think. But leaving that aside for the moment, I think there's always a problem when self-righteous sorts - true believers - feel they aren't getting their way. That's not meant as a slam, necessarily, just an observation.

The problem is, you're dealing with what on the national level amounts to a very narrow constituency - and catering to that constituency to the degree to which it demands to be catered may create an electorally suicidal situation.