Political paranoia

The Republicans won’t increase their support by promoting irrationality.The GOP faces a huge challenge: Recovering its position as a viable political alternative for an electorate that fears its extreme positions. To achieve this, the first step would be to stop using paranoia as a strategy, instead of dressing itself up with a discourse that Latino and independent voters find reasonable.

An opinion survey by the reputable Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind found that 44% of Republican participants believe that in the next few years, an armed revolution might be necessary to protect constitutional liberties.

This is a very serious finding because of what it depicts about the current political moment, which is causing all types of reactions. What was not visible—just like in the debate about Obama’s birth—were reasonable Republican voices that recognize the error of this perception.

Doing so would have forced them to admit that this viewpoint resulted from the exaggerated rhetoric used during the firearms debate—a rhetoric that focused on a supposed government attempt to disarm the public with the goal of suppressing civil liberties.

The cool heads of the GOP have remained silent here. Like in the past, this tacitly allows this extremist notion to expand, as long as it provides political brownie points. In return, a series of Republican politicians paraded this weekend around the convention of the National Rifle Association—an organization that encourages the anti-government conspiracy theory.

This type of irrational position is what scares away voters who are open to considering the Republican political option. Supporting immigration reform, for example, is a positive strategy to capture the Latino vote. But it won’t be worth much if the paranoia of its base is still the cornerstone to regaining political ground.

ImpreMedia/La Opinion