Joe Scarborough: Republican Party Must 'Reform or Die'

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough (AP Photo)

By    |   Thursday, 20 October 2016 05:11 PM EDT ET

With Republicans possibly facing their sixth popular-vote loss in the past seven presidential elections, the party has to either "reform or die," ex-Florida GOP lawmaker Joe Scarborough warns.

In an op-ed commentary for the Washington Post on Thursday, MSNBC's "Morning Joe" host decried neither the campaign of Donald Trump – nor that of Mitt Romney in 2012 – served as a "wake-up call to Republicans."

"The Republican Party must reform or die," Scarborough wrote. "Because if it stays on its current course, George W. Bush's fear may be proven right. He may be the last Republican ever elected to the White House."

According to Scarborough, "It is past time that my party confront the ugly undercurrents that led us to this point and have been allowed to fester in the Party of Lincoln for too long."

The television host argues this November marks "the 50th anniversary of the GOP’s cracking of the Democrats’ 'Solid South,'" and the 50th year Ronald Reagan beat Pat Brown for governor of California, launching the Reagan revolution.

"For the half century that followed, Republicans across the United States got elected with the backing of working-class whites, usually at the expense of giving Democrats 90 percent of the black vote," Scarborough wrote. "GOP presidential nominees paid lip service to the needs of people of color, but candidates from Richard Nixon to Mitt Romney also benefited from the racial resentments of white working-class voters."

With Trump's candidacy, racially charged remarks, including about Mexicans and Muslims, "diminished his chances in the general election while seemingly feeding into his support in the Republican primary."

"There are not enough white guys in America to elect Trump president without the support of others," Scarborough wrote, adding Trump's "rhetoric seems to have limited his vote percentage to about 40 percent from the start of his campaign, and in 2016, that will not be enough to win."

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Politics
With Republicans possibly facing their sixth presidential loss in the past seven elections, the party has to either "reform or die," ex-Florida GOP lawmaker Joe Scarborough warns.
joe scarborough, republican, party, reform, die
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2016-11-20
Thursday, 20 October 2016 05:11 PM
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