Annihilation???

The other day, Speaker John Boehner told a group of Republicans that President Obama’s focus is to annihilate the Republican Party.  While this might appear to be the case if one only looks at the vote counts from the 2012 election, the reality is that the Republicans have done far more to annihilate their own party that Obama or any other Democrats are capable of doing.  Consider the job of state governors and legislators where the Republicans are in control of both the legislatures as well as the governorship.  Not only have these Republicans enacted legislation that cost the women’s vote, the votes of minorities, and the votes of many living in urban settings, the positions on virtually every issue appeals to a minority of voters rather than a majority of voters.  But for gerrymandering, the Republicans would have not only lost the Presidency and failed to win control in the Senate but received one and a half million fewer votes for House seats.  To make matters worse, in many states controlled by Republicans, rules governing voting made it difficult for many to vote.  Rather than making it easier for everyone to vote, laws requiring Photo ID, reducing the hours of early voting, and other restrictive measures such as insufficient numbers of available voting machines and exceptionally long ballots were all perceived as activities on the part of Republicans to suppress the vote of those who might vote for Democrats.  This perception was reinforced by the lack of any of these measures in states with Democrats controlling one third or more of the state government.  After the election, Republican controlled states are talking about changing the rules governing the award of Electoral College votes to again favor Republican chances of winning the Presidency in spite of losing the popular vote.  Finally, now where Republicans are in control, proposals to change the way states raise revenue are in the work that will raise state taxes over $300,oo per year for the poorest of families, over $500.00 per year for the average family and lower state taxes by over $25,000.00 per year for the wealthiest of families.  It is the work of Republicans that will annihilate the Republican Party, not efforts by Obama.  Why should Obama even try when Republicans are doing far more damage to their own election chances than could ever be done by anyone outside of their ranks.