For the GOP, A Change Has Come – Or Has It?

Wikipedia, a highly reputable information resource defines “Metamorphosis” as “a biological process by which an animal physically develops after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation.” Wow! It sounds complex – and painful! And, from the biological perspective from which this definition derives, it encompasses an entire phase of an organism’s lifespan. And that brings another, less easily definable element into the equation. Time. But for purposes of this article, we will loosely define time as "a social construct within which humans sequence and compare events." With this definition, we can analyze known human history and measure not only technological, geographical and demographic changes, we can also measure changes in human behavior and attitude – the latter being the most challenging and slowest-moving metamorphosis. So, for a little while here, the word metamorphosis will not refer to caterpillars and butterflies; but instead, it will refer to the human attitude. We are nearly a month removed from the general election in which President Obama was re-elected to another term. The Republican Candidate, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney as well as the most of the republican party were left scratching their heads, wondering how in the wide, wide world of trickle-down economics could this have happened. To say that they were in “disbelief,” would be a gross understatement. Nowhere was this disbelief more observable than on Fox News coverage of the election where, Karl Rove, the reknown political strategist and Fox News contributor, demanded that his own network news outlet recant its position that President Obama had prevailed in Ohio. Disbelief!! After all, no sitting president since World War II had ever won re-election with an unemployment rate above 7.2 percent. Of course, this statistic is overblown and tremulous in its exactness and reliability. Many other factors distort the conclusion. Nevertheless, it was the Trump card (pun intended) upon which the GOP had built its delusional House of “President Romney.” But, as we know, the unimaginable happened and President Obama was resoundingly re-elected. Subsequently, the post-mortem theories began to pervade the airwaves. You’ve heard most of them: Romney lost because he didn’t court the young vote. He didn’t court the minority vote. The President had a stronger “ground game.” Paul Ryan was the wrong V.P. choice. Hurricane Sandy disrupted Romney’s momentum. The Twinkies company was going out of business. The list goes on and on and on. But whatever the reasons the GOP have convinced themselves as being the real reasons for Romney’s defeat, there is ultimately one scapegoat in this saga. Mitt Romney – because he was just a “bad candidate.” Now, I’m just a guy thinking, but is anyone else witnessing the GOP turning against its Golden Boy like a pack of rabid hyenas? And, for the record – hyenas may very well be dignified, honorable creatures; I’m only gleaning from their depictions in The Lion King and a couple of unflattering National Geographic specials. So, anyway, The GOP’s Buzz Lightyear, in-the-flesh - the man who, after his first debate performance, was compared by his running mate and others in the campaign to their great diety - Ronald Reagan, is now the bane of the party. A pariah. The cooties kid on the playground. A chump who should be disavowed and criticized for every word he utters. He is the mistake that the GOP just wants to forget. His status in the party became clear when he told donors on a conference call after the election that the Obama campaign "focused on giving targeted groups a big gift" and was "very generous" to ethnic minorities and young voters. Here began the real feeding frenzy. Leading the buffet line was Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a devoted Romney surrogate in the weeks leading up to the election. Jindal chastised, “I think that's absolutely wrong. We have got to stop dividing the American voters. We need to go after 100 percent of the votes, not 53 percent. We need to go after every single vote.” But where was Jindal when Romney made his infamous “47%” proclamation? In fact, many GOP elected officials defended those horrendous remarks as “inarticulate,” “misspoke[n],” “a little clumsy,” or saying “he could have better explained himself.” Some, like Former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu, a top Romney surrogate, were downright obstinate - going as far as flipping the script and saying that it was the President who was “trying to make class warfare a divider,” not Romney. But no one is defending Romney’s “gifts” comments. No one. And in a shameful display of WTH!? that would make a maggot vomit, Romney’s comments were called “inappropriate” by none other than Florida Governor Rick Scott. Yes, FLORIDA Governor – the same governor who signed a law shortening the early voting period, resulting in yet another clusterflog in Florida on voting day, and a 4-day delay in awarding its 29 electoral votes. It has since been alleged by Jim Greer, the former head of the Florida Republican Party, that the law was deliberately designed to suppress voting among groups that tend to support Democratic candidates. And had it not been for the grit, determination and patience of the voters of Florida, the state may very well have gone Red – as Scott and the GOP State leadership had intended. But now, Scott is a good guy because he finally criticized Romney for saying something [else] that was stupid and flat-out wrong. So, the question is this: Is the GOP undergoing an attitude metamorphosis? Are they changing the way they think about the American people? Are they finally accepting the diversity of American culture and values, instead of defining those values from a homogeneous perspective? Well, if we take a look at key words within the definition of metamorphosis again – namely, “involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change,” and apply those words to what we are observing with the GOP these days, then one might think - well, maybe they are changing. But then let us reintroduce the biological definition as it applies to a creature that does undergo metamorphosis - a butterfly. I am not a biologist/zoologist/butterflyologist, and I understand that butterfly metamorphosis is an inexact science – as species, geography, climate and host vegetation, all play important roles in the life cycles of butterflies. But one thing is largely consistent throughout the butterfly kingdom – the egg, caterpillar and larvae stages encompass roughly one-third of most butterflies’ lifespans. That would be equivalent to our achieving biological “adulthood” at around 25 years old. Most of us can agree that minds – particularly adult minds, aren't so malleable. It is for that reason that I do not believe the rhetoric coming out of the GOP camp. I do not believe that they have become a kinder, gentler party. I do not believe that top GOP officials’ lambasting of Mitt Romney is an indication that they are now breaking ranks with his line of thinking – the same line of thinking, by the way, that he exhibited throughout his entire campaign, and one which the vast majority of republican politicians embraced. You see, Romney’s words are only a verbal manifestation of his beliefs. And his policies would have been a manifestations of his words. As President Obama said “you should believe [he will do what he says he will do] because that’s been his history.” And that wouldn’t have bided well for most Americans – particularly us 47-percent-ish, gift-taking types. The GOP may indeed be going through a cultural or philosophical metamorphosis that may put them more in synch with the majority of the people that they hope to govern. But I believe that that magical, mythical GOP butterfly is a ways off yet – a lot further off than the mid-term elections in 2014 that they’re now sweating, or the next presidential election 4 years from now. So, as it relates to accepting this “nicer” face of the GOP, I believe that the majority of voters should give the Republicans what we gave President Obama. Time. Give them time to grow into the adult butterflies that they claim they want to become. That means keeping them in cocoons and letting them develop for a while before giving them adult responsibilities – like governing a country. Now, I’m just a guy thinking – again. But could it be that this apparent change of heart in the leadership of the Republican Party might have anything at all to do with the very strong possibility that they are going to lose the House in 2014? After all, they didn’t just fail in gaining The White House; they lost seats in the House and the Senate. Could it be…?? Naaaa! Couldn’t be. It was just a thought…