This is an adapted excerpt from the July 23 episode of “Morning Joe.”
I look at Republicans today, calling women “childless cat ladies,” and I ask myself: Who are these people?
A quote often attributed to former NFL head coach Bill Parcells reads, “You are what your record says you are.” Here’s the Republican Party’s record:
They lost in 2017. They lost in 2018. They lost in 2019. They lost in 2020. They lost in 2021. They lost in 2022. They lost in 2023. They lost the governorship in Kentucky. They lost an abortion referendum in Kansas that they were supposed to win by 20 points.
They’re losing because they have embraced an ideology that excludes politics.
They keep losing and they keep wondering why they keep losing, and they get angrier and angrier. They’re losing because they have embraced an ideology that excludes politics. I’ve said it time and time again, politics is about addition. It’s about bringing people in, being hopeful, saying: “Yes, we have a place for you in our party. We welcome you. We’re not going to go out and try to figure out who the ‘others’ are so we can attack them. We’re going to bring you into the party.”
You need a big tent, have everybody welcome. You can have values and guidelines but you also need guardrails — which, of course, the Republican Party hasn’t had for quite some time. That’s why Republicans are what they are: losers. They lose elections, year in and year out. They can’t help themselves.
Former Rep. Joe Scarborough, R-Fla., is co-host of MS NOW's "Morning Joe" alongside Mika Brzezinski — a show that Time magazine calls "revolutionary." In addition to his career in television, Joe is a two-time New York Times best-selling author. His most recent book is "The Right Path: From Ike to Reagan, How Republicans Once Mastered Politics — and Can Again."
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.