GOP Strategist Ed Rollins, a self-described old fat white man, believes the Republican party has too many old fat white men. If he’s worried this will hurt the GOP’s future electoral success, he should be. Winning the old fat white male vote was a surefire path to victory when only white men could vote, but you’re doomed if this is all you get now. Today about 64% of the US population is white, and only around half of those people are male. Not sure what percentage are also old and fat, but it ain’t enough to win an election.

The GOP’s known this is a problem, but it isn’t one they’ve been terribly interested in solving. To change its demographics, the Republican Party must radically change its politics. Instead it seems to have looked around the room and said, “You know, there are too many non-fat, non-white, non-males hanging out in our tent. Let’s do something to rid ourselves of all this unwelcome diversity.” Now, Instead of supporting legislation that would help bright and gifted teenagers attend college, Republicans in the US House and Senate voted against the DREAM Act. Instead of standing up for their friends, wives and daughters, the GOP voted to repeal the Violence Against Women Act Instead of embracing the spirit of the 15th Amendment, Republicans in states across the country aggressively purge voter roles of African-Americans and Latinos

Come on guys, you like to call yourselves the “Party of Lincoln” but the last time he won an election was 1864, and he had this crazy idea that “property” bought and owned by old fat white guys should be set free into the land. It’s not like that was a single progressive dark spot on an otherwise unblemished record of regression. The 1944 Republican Party platform included equal rights for women, and in 1963 y’all helped pass the Equal Pay Act. Later that same year, House and Senate Republicans stood with Pres. Johnson to pass the Civil Rights Act into law. At that time only 50% of African-Americans identified themselves as Democrat. This might have been your chance to broaden your base and stake your claim as the party standing up for all Americans, but instead you nominated Barry Goldwater, who was one of only 6 Senate Republicans to vote against the Civil Rights Act. After that election the number of African-Americans calling themselves Democrats jumped to 82%, but you didn’t care. Four years later you embraced the Southern segregationists with open arms, and executed the racially divisive Southern Strategy to send Nixon to the White House. I admit the strategy worked. Nixon won two terms, but did you really think division politics was a long-term method for success?

You want diversity in the GOP? Then stand up for civil rights. Stand up for women’s rights. Stand up for gay rights. Stand up for Latino rights. Maybe then your party won’t be so overwhelmingly white and male. As for the fat thing, I hear Weightwatchers is pretty good.