Jacology: GOP Image

(KPLR) – Missouri republicans met over the weekend for their annual Lincoln days.  In Monday’s Jacology, Charles Jaco explains what the party needs to do change its image.
The Republican Party has a problem. Crunch the numbers from the last election and you see the GOP is perceived as the party of angry old white men in the Midwest and South. Their insistence in harping on restricting abortion, controlling immigration and opposing gay marriage puts them pretty well out of step with the country the United States is quickly becoming in the 21st century.

Bobby Jindal, republican governor of Louisiana brought a variety of that message to the Missouri Republican Party at their Lincoln days get-together this last weekend. Jindal told the Missouri GOP that they need to focus more on economic growth and opportunity and less on slashing spending. Organizers told the GOP that the focus on social issues is killing the republican brand.

But will Missouri republicans listen? Remember Todd Akin was listed by the national journal as only the fourth most conservative congressman in this state. Missouri republicans have doubled down on demonizing Obama, fighting immigration and gay marriage, restrictive voter ID laws and other policies guaranteed to galvanize their rural white base.

Jindal’s message makes sense. The republicans haven’t alienated the young and women and minorities by running bad candidates. They’ve done it through their policies. If they want to build for the future, they have to give Blacks and Hispanics and young people and women economic reasons to vote for them.

I’m Charles Jaco and that’s Jacology.