Fear and Loathing in the GOP

Over the past few months, a number of states (with Maine and New Hampshire being the most recent examples) have legalized gay marriage.  This, of course, has conservatives with their panties in a bunch:

What's ridiculous is there's no point trying to stop gay marriage. Putting aside the idea that the government should not be involved private affairs, every group that has fought for civil rights in this country has won. More importantly, Americans, especially younger Americans, support it. 

Man, the GOP has really put itself in a serious predicament. Republicans are now generally perceived as anti-gay (and anti-gay marriage), anti-immigrant, anti-science, anti-environment, anti-choice, pro-torture, pro-Iraq war, pro-Wall St, racist, primarily responsible for the economic crisis, and the party of old white guys. Is there any wonder why only 21% of people self-identified as Republican? Perhaps they should take Stephen Colbert's advice on how to re-brand the party.

Considering their policy views, how can the GOP be competitive in the 2010 and 2012 elections? Mark Nickolas at Huffington Post says they can't win without independent voters:

Assuming that each party gets 90 percent support from its base, Republicans would have to win independents by a 59 to 41 margin to win a typical election. Nevermind that it's Democrats who are handily winning independents these days.

But if you want one pretty dramatic example of the uphill battle Republicans face in trying to win over independents -- as they spend an inordinate amount of time attacking President Obama and his agenda and policies -- it's the right track/wrong track trend among those very independents.

Right Track/Wrong Track (Independent Voters only)
(CBS News polls)

May 2009: 42% right track, 52% wrong track
Apr 2009: 35% right track, 54% wrong track
Feb 2009: 21% right track, 68% wrong track
Oct 2008: 4% right track, 89% wrong track

Again, those numbers reflect independents only.

It doesn't take a political rocket scientist to understand this spiral death trap that the GOP seems to be in when it comes to the most critical bloc of voters that will decide their immediate electoral future: independents.

Aside from independents' strong approval of President Obama's job performance (they give him 59/28 approval in this week's poll), they are growing massively more comfortable in the direction of the country -- the very direction which the GOP is fighting tooth and nail.

Good luck with that, GOP...