Maddow: Republicans are their own worst enemy on this minority outreach thing

On "The Rachel Maddow Show" on Thursday, host Rachel Maddow pointed out that the main thing that seems to be getting in the way of the ongoing Republican effort to reach out to women and minority voters has been Republicans themselves. Whatever cosmetic changes they may apply to their external rhetoric, party members can't help but express their disdain for nonwhites, the poor and anyone who isn't like themselves.

The host began by showing clips from "The Daily Show," in which North Carolina Republican Party official Don Yelton, who came right out and announced that the Republicans intend to win in that state through vote suppression. He said that the state's new voter ID laws are designed to keep students and "a bunch of lazy blacks" from voting.

Yelton has , but the fact that he felt comfortable talking that way says a lot about the current state of the Republican Party.

"The North Carolina Republican Party, everybody," Maddow said. "Can I get an 'Amen!'"

Unfortunately, this week is also the week when the Republican Party has chosen to kick off its African-American outreach program. In the wake of the shellacking the Republican Party received in the 2012 elections, the party did a bit of soul searching and decided it needs to make an effort to attract people outside of its traditionally white, rural constituency.

"They wanted to admit to what was wrong," Maddow said, "and try to fix it."

That plan has met a few snags, as embodied by men like Yelton. Or the time Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) read a love poem by Pablo Neruda to a group of Latino business owners. Or the Republicans' ongoing attempts to block comprehensive immigration reform.

"The Republican Party's own plan for what they need to do to stop losing elections," Maddow said, "says they should work on immigration reform. Also says they should maybe stop calling black people 'lazy' and trying to block them from voting."

We'll see, she said, if the party can manage either of those two things.

Watch the video, embedded below via MSNBC: