Opinion
The GOP must embrace change
RHONDA SWAN
Published: January 3, 2013
"I don't know why," Gov. Rick Scott said recently, "anyone is not a Republican."Published: January 3, 2013
Has he looked in the mirror lately?
His is the face of a party that puts politics over people, caters to the rich, kicks the poor when they're down and forces its religion on the rest of us.
Florida's Republican lawmakers scream limited government but forced women seeking abortions to have unnecessary ultrasounds. They worship free enterprise but want taxpayers to fund private schools. They tout the U.S. Constitution, then legislate school prayer.
They refused federal cash to implement the Affordable Care Act, but accepted money for abstinence-only education that's done nothing to reduce teen pregnancy or abortions.
The GOP-dominated Legislature has given $2.5 billion in tax breaks to corporations, yet made it harder for the unemployed to collect needed benefits.
Legislators forced people in need of state aid during the worst economy since the Great Depression to take drug tests as a prerequisite. And they put thousands of state employees out of work.
Mitt Romney dissed the 47 percent at a fundraiser in Florida because he expected it to play well here.
Romney got a bad rap for saying out loud what many Republican elected officials believe. They prove it in Tallahassee and in statehouses across the country with the laws they enact.
Instead of widening their tent by advocating policies that would appeal to African-Americans, Latinos, women and young people, Florida's Republican lawmakers passed a law designed to keep minorities who traditionally vote Democrat from the polls.
It was an epic failure. President Barack Obama became the first Democrat to win Florida twice in nearly seven decades.
During the four years since the nation elected its first African-American president, Republicans, Florida's lawmakers included, doubled down on policies that alienated African-Americans, Latinos, women and gays. That is why someone wouldn't be Republican.
If the GOP doesn't evolve and accept the realities of the present, the party is going to be a relic of the past.
Rhonda Swan is an editorial writer for The Palm Beach Post.