Editorial: Will the GOP convention be a celebration of anger and exclusion?

After Mitt Romney lost the 2012 presidential election, an “autopsy” commissioned by the Republican National Committee concluded that the party needed to reach out to young people and minorities if it had any hope of regaining the White House. But the Republican National Convention that begins on Monday — and the man on whom it will bestow its nomination — seem determined to double down on anger and exclusion.

The post-2012 autopsy — officially, the report of the Growth and Opportunity Project — didn’t mince words.

“Public perception of the party is at record lows,” it said. “Young voters are increasingly rolling their eyes at what the party represents, and many minorities wrongly think that Republicans do not like them.” The report advocated comprehensive immigration reform and warned that the party had to “make sure young people do not see the party as totally intolerant of alternative points of view,” including on the subject of gay rights.

As Republicans convene in Cleveland this week to nominate Donald Trump, those recommendations seem like dispatches from an alternative universe. Not that the trends in voter demographics have dramatically improved for the GOP in four years; instead, the autopsy’s advice has fallen on a new set of deaf ears.

With the failure of an attempt to release delegates from their obligation to support Trump on the first ballot, the convention will be a coronation. And the crown will be placed on the head of a candidate who has referred to Mexican immigrants as rapists, proposed a blanket ban on Muslims entering the U.S. and threatened suspected terrorists with treatment “a hell of a lot worse” than waterboarding.

The Democrats’ demographic firewall is under attack »

The platform set to be adopted the convention is likely to be even more unappealing to women, minorities, gays and many young voters than Trump is. The document echoes his xenophobic call for a wall to prevent illegal Mexican immigration and specifies that it must cover “the entirety of the Southern border” and be “sufficient to stop both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.” And on social issues, the document actually tacks to Trump’s right.

For example, while Trump has said he is anti-abortion (and fleetingly suggested punishing women who have the procedure) the platform recycles a proposal in the 2012 platform for a “human life amendment” to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting abortion. And while Trump has made various statements suggesting that he isn’t hostile to gays and lesbians, the platform is replete with anti-gay provisions, including a call for a constitutional amendment to let states to ban gay marriage again.

Nor are younger and minority voters likely to be swayed much by Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. Pence’s experience as a governor and member of Congress distinguish him from Trump, who has never held public office, and so does his more restrained personality. But he is no champion of comprehensive immigration reform. In Congress he sought to require immigrants in the country illegally to deport themselves before seeking legal status (To his credit, he criticized Trump’s proposal for a ban on Muslims entering the country, calling it “offensive and unconstitutional”; more recently, he endorsed Trump’s call to temporarily bar all entrants from countries rife with terrorism.)

On social issues, Pence has been a consistent conservative. This year he signed a bill — later blocked by a federal judge — that would have prohibited abortion when the fetus suffered from a disability. Last year he signed a “religious freedom” bill that many feared would permit discrimination against gays and lesbians. (After an uproar he signed an revised version making it clear businesses couldn’t deny service based on sexual orientation.)

As a member of Congress, Pence supported a constitutional amendment to limit marriage to a man and a woman and voted not to repeal the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy that required gay service members to keep their sexual orientation secret. He also voted against a bill to prohibit workplace discrimination against gays and lesbians.

No doubt Trump, Pence and other speakers in Cleveland this week will appeal to Americans of all ages and backgrounds to vote Republican. But with this ticket and this platform those appeals are likely to result in a lot of eye-rolling.

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UPDATES:

7:56 a.m.: This editorial was updated to reflect Pence’s current position on border security.