Jerry points out Kathleen Parker's What the *#@% Is Wrong With Republicans?!

In any case, a storm more perfect than Isaac (it seems impossible to discuss Republicans in non-biblical terms) has formed to the benefit of Democrats—and not just the metaphorical kind. That hallelujah chorus you hear is coming from David Axelrod’s Chicago office, where he and other campaign strategists were seen performing grand jetés in celebration of their good fortune. What more delicious manna than the opportunity to conjoin in the public’s mind the idiocy of Akin, who weirdly serves on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and Romney’s sixth son, Ryan. Such a GOP twofer can only be a gift from You Know Who.

Alas, Akin’s comments were not in isolation. They followed a year of explosive events and remarks involving Republican lawmakers and leaders—and the women they seek to “protect.” A one-man firing squad, Akin simply provided the exclamation point at the end of a Faulknerian paragraph of Republican offenses, from laws attempting to require transvaginal probes for women seeking abortion to promises to defund Planned Parenthood to Rush Limbaugh’s calling law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” when she testified about the need for insurance coverage for contraception. Agree or not with her argument, powerful men shouldn’t call young women sluts for attempting to participate in a grown-up debate about health care. Agree or not with a woman’s decision to end a pregnancy, elected officials shouldn’t parse the definition of rape as “legitimate” or otherwise. For the record, the bill to redefine rape as “forcible” had 227 Republican cosponsors.

Reality Check

“77% of Americans believe birth control shouldn’t be part of the national political debate.”—Bloomberg National Poll

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Conservative Donor Foster Friess:
‘Back in my day, they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives. The Gals put it between their knees, and it wasn’t that costly.’—MSNBC

The cumulative effect of these episodes, combined with Democrats’ carefully crafted GOP “war on women” narrative, have boxed Republicans into a corner of stubborn self-defeat. Hackneyed and contrived as this “war” is, there’s a reason it has gained traction. “Because it’s true,” says Margaret Hoover, a leading voice in the young conservative movement, CNN contributor, gay-marriage advocate, and author of American Individualism—a call to arms for her great-grandfather Herbert Hoover’s rugged individualism tempered with a community spirit suitable for the millennial generation.
 

Opting for a vernacular expression of her frustration, Hoover queries: “What the (*#@%) is wrong? What has happened within the party infrastructure that has malfunctioned so desperately, so that this minority of representatives are in such positions of power that are so out of step with the majority of Republicans?”

Original Story: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/08/26/what-s-wrong-with-the-republican-party.html