Will the recall loss jolt the California GOP out of its death spiral?

[brooklynite]

No.

There are hardly any signs that California Republicans have gotten the message that the key to returning to power is to develop positions and policies that address the genuine issues voters have with their state — policies that subject Democratic governance to serious criticism.

The Larry Elder campaign’s reaction to its impending defeat in the recall was to preemptively claim fraud, with a website belonging to the campaign even alluding to the “ammo box” as a means to “ameliorate the twisted results” of the election. (The reference to the ammo box apparently was removed from the website by Tuesday.)

Former President Trump weighed in with a statement calling the election “rigged,” an assertion for which there are absolutely no grounds whatsoever. Unless the GOP is prepared to say that its long drought in statewide office-seeking is the result of 15 years of rigged elections, it must acknowledge that voting fraud isn’t its problem. Blindness to voters’ interests is its problem.

That self-evident truth was on vivid display throughout the recall. We can examine the party’s deep illness by examining the platforms of the leading Republican candidates: radio host Elder, businessman John Cox, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and state Assemblyman Kevin Kiley.

The general approach of all of them was to list the problems faced by the state and suggest that only they had the answers.

As my colleague Steve Lopez eloquently observed a few days before the election, many of the fixes they were selling — “tax cuts, restoring the death penalty, releasing fewer prisoners, school choice, harsher policies on immigrants, loosening coronavirus protocols, relaxing environmental protections, police enforcement of homeless encampments — are red-meat talking points rather than viable solutions to the state’s most vexing problems.”

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-09-15/recall-loss-california-gop-death-spiral

[NQAS]

1. Not a chance

They'll just keep refining their tactics to ensure that they will be successful down the road.

[NCDem47]

2. Nah.

EVERYONE knows that CA is deep blue and not indicative of the nation at-large.

[Wounded Bear]

3. Will the last repub leaving California please drop off your keys...

with someone with some personal responsibility and integrity?

Thank you.

[TheRealNorth]

4. The only thing they learned is that they need to develop more/better ways to suppress the vote

[PortTack]

5. No..they never learn. Thing is their situation with their voters is becoming dire!

They are dying from the pandemic 5X faster than Dems. The numbers of voters leaving the gqp now ranges in the tens of thousands.

Another big indicator of the failing gqp, the DNC is now out raising the rnc. Ppl are FED UP!

I say just stay out of their way

[TheRealNorth]

8. I wouldn't worry about the GQP running out of money

Plenty of GQP sugar daddies (and mamas) that can shovel dark money to help Republicans out. Plus they still have a hold on the media narrative. All they got to do is sat something and AP News will parrot it across the country.

[hatrack]

6. Nah, they just need "better messaging!!"

[maxsolomon]

7. I hope it's contagious.

The entire country needs a GQP death spiral.

[hunter]

9. The Republican Party is the two year old cottage cheese lost in the back of the refrigerator.

It's well past its expiration date and entirely rotten.

[KPN]

10. Let's hope not.

[Hortensis]

11. :) Another Times headline: It's now Larry Elder's California GOP. What's his next move?

I don't know, but with that "base," I strongly suggest he keep throwing them red meat lest they come after HIS ass.

[wryter2000]

12. As long as Republicans have to run in primaries

They will never nominate candidates who have a chance with the general population of CA. Long live the death spiral!

[Xolodno]

13. There going to need a few more slaps in face before they realize...

...the old talking points that help out in Kansas don't work here anymore. They need to get out of the echo chamber and actually come up with solutions. But those solutions won't jive with the rest of the GOP and put them at odds at the national level when it comes to Congress. Until they get some courage, they are road kill.

[dsc]

14. They are facing the same problem in states such as CA

as the Democrats did and to some extent still do in the south. The national party is just not a good fit for that electorate and it has become vastly harder for even people running for statewide office to separate themselves from the national party. We had and still have that problem in much of the South. The South used to produce a bunch of quite conservative Democratic office holders at the state level even as they sent GOP senators to DC. Now, our primary electorate is enough more liberal that the rest of the state that, that isn't a viable strategy. So, Democrats aren't getting elected statewide as often.

It wasn't that long ago that New England had several GOP senators (Jeffords, Chafee, Snowe, Collins, Smith). Now only Collins is left. Similarly, they are having a hard time electing GOP governors there (outside of MA). CA is probably dead to the GOP for quite some time baring a national turn around that isn't going to happen anytime soon. One of the reasons the undemocratic nature of our government is so bad, is that this conduct has been enabled. When Democrats were this outside of the mainstream we lost elections with regularity. The GOP loses them about as often as a coin flip. That is a real problem.