Last week it was Republican strategist Steve Schmidt blaming Mitt Romney's loss on conservative "loons and wackos," this week on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, fellow Republican strategist Mike Murphy joined the media chorus demanding the GOP move left: "...if we don't modernize conservatism, we can go extinct....we've got to get kind of a party view of America that's not right out of Rush Limbaugh's dream journal." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
Murphy explained how to "modernize" the party: "We alienate young voters because of gay marriage, we have a policy problem. We alienate Latinos – the fastest growing voter group in the country, because of our fetish on so-called amnesty....It's a fundamental rethink that begins with policy..." Moments later, he asserted: "...the biggest problem Mitt Romney had was the Republican primary. That's what's driving the Republican brand right now to a disaster."
Here is a transcript of Murphy's November 18 analysis:
11:18AM ET
(...)
DAVID GREGORY: Mike Murphy, the fallout from Mitt Romney's discussion that basically Obama gave gifts to minority groups, that's how he got re-elected. This is the time when the party is trying to figure out where it's going.
MIKE MURPHY: Well, unfortunate comment. I think we ought to have a rule that if you lose a presidential election, you know, you get a pass for a week because it's like a bender you're coming off of.
GREGORY: Yeah. And don't talk to donors.
MURPHY: I – I – well, yeah, you know, look there's a huge donor revolt going on. I mean, look, we have now lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections. This is a existential crisis for the Republican Party, and we have to have a brutal discussion about it. We alienate young voters because of gay marriage, we have a policy problem. We alienate Latinos – the fastest growing voter group in the country, because of our fetish on so-called amnesty, when we should be for a path to immigration. And we've lost our connection to middle-class economics. We also have an operative class and unfortunately a lot of which is incompetent. We don't know how to win. So, this isn't about new software in the basement of the RNC. It's not about a few Spanish language radio ads. It's a fundamental rethink that begins with policy because the country is changing and if we don't modernize conservatism, we can go extinct. The numbers are the numbers.
(...)
I want to quickly respond to one thing because it's very fashionable now to beat up Romney and – and he made an unfortunate comment after the election. But the biggest problem Mitt Romney had was the Republican primary. That's what's driving the Republican brand right now to a disaster. And we've got to get kind of a party view of America that's not right out of Rush Limbaugh's dream journal. We got to look at reality.