How the GOP needs to change, and how it doesn’t
Tuesday was a brutal night for Republicans.
Incumbent presidents are tough to beat, but Barack Obama was about as vulnerable as they come. The economy is stagnant; his signature legislative achievement is unpopular; his party weathered sharp losses in the midterm elections – by now, you know the litany by heart. Yet Mitt Romney appears to have flipped only two states Obama won in 2008 (pending the final result in Florida).
When political parties lose brutally, a lot of new conventional wisdom crops up. Some of it’s right, some of it’s wrong. Here’s an early take on which is which:
1. Republicans have to move toward the left.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. There are two major political parties in this country in large part because they represent two sets of durable, mainstream beliefs. Sometimes one or the other does a better job of representing its beliefs, but neither ideology will be permanently defeated. Which leads me to …
2. The GOP has to ditch the tea party.
Wrong. Just two years ago, the GOP stopped Democrats’ congressional super-majorities in their tracks thanks to tea partyers. America hasn’t changed dramatically in that time, even if a successful tea-party candidate needs more polish than we’ve seen out of some of them (hello, Christine O’Donnell) to attract a broader audience.
The original animating concern of the tea party — halting the rapid growth of the federal government, from bailouts to debt to Obamacare — could have been a political winner Tuesday. (We don’t have to wait for the historians to marvel that the GOP in 2012 nominated the only guy who couldn’t capitalize on Obamacare’s lack of popularity.)
Romney might have made up for that failing if he’d joined the growing ranks of conservatives who support breaking up the biggest banks to ensure none is too big to fail. His comment during the second debate about his party’s devotion to Big Business at the expense of small businesses was his chance. He didn’t take it. A Republican with 2016 ambitions might, soon.
3. The GOP has to reach out to non-white voters.
This one’s absolutely true. There is plenty to criticize in Romney’s lack of minority outreach, but this is not his problem alone. Nor will it go away if the GOP merely highlights the promising, young, non-white stars they already have, such as Nikki Haley, Bobby Jindal, Susana Martinez and Marco Rubio.
Republicans have to explain why conservative ideas are good for minorities. They can’t simply trot out their ideas and expect minorities to recognize their brilliance when those voters have been told by Democrats, many of them for generations, that those ideas are intended to benefit other (read: white) people. When Republicans fail to engage minority voters, they effectively reinforce the Democrats’ argument.
It will take more than talking, though. It will take action. Here’s an idea about one policy that makes minorities most skeptical about the right: voter ID laws. Why not fight the notion these laws are about suppressing voting, rather than reducing fraud, by taking proactive steps to help put IDs in the hands of the people who think they’re being targeted?
4. Republicans must drop social conservatism.
Wrong. Social conservatism isn’t wholly out of the mainstream. Gallup’s long-term tracking of public attitudes about abortion, for instance, show the pro-life position is as strong as it’s been since Roe v. Wade. What’s out of the mainstream is a social conservative who can’t talk about opposing abortion without sounding as if he’s endorsing the act of rape. That cost the GOP two Senate seats and surely hurt Romney’s standing with some women.
Gay marriage may be different. Older voters who oppose it altogether are being replaced every day by 18-year-olds who couldn’t care less — and who don’t seem to change their stance as they get older. There was a time when Republicans could have pushed civil unions to make all couples equal before the law without changing the traditional definition of marriage. That time may have passed.
5. Georgia Republicans are a few years away from facing some of the same issues as the national GOP.
True, true, true. I’ll explain how they can avoid the same fate in a column coming soon to a blog very, very near you.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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883 comments Add your comment
Hillbilly D
November 8th, 2012
8:13 pm
If anyone is interested, the national debt now exceeds $16.25 trillion.
Sorry I can’t pay it.
Progressive Humanist
November 8th, 2012
8:15 pm
Hillbilly @ 8:06: I would call that more of a cultural and social change, not a change in demographics. The ratio of whites to blacks did not change at that time, and even though blacks gained the right to vote, the vast majority of voters were lilly white for two more generations. You’ve never seen a shift when whites were headed towards a plurality rather than a majority. And that pendulum is not swinging back any time soon (meaning at least the next 50 years), and will probably never swing back.
JamVet
November 8th, 2012
8:24 pm
AmVet, unlike you, I always admit my errors, and have done so already.</I.
Which is so much easier when you only make one once every few years, right, tibs?!
I suspect that following another four years of mediocrity and failure, many people will be saying, “I wish I had voted for Romney”.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Wasn’t that the loser refrain you Republicans just got done singing for four straight years? That the American-hating Muslim had to run on his record?!
Hysterical…
For such a brilliant guy, you sure do write a LOT of stupid stuff.
ATLien
November 8th, 2012
8:31 pm
Linda you are a clown. Fox news has your mind body and soul
H.E. Pennypacker
November 8th, 2012
8:32 pm
Good news cons, Sean Hannity did a 180 a moment ago and is now for immigration reform. With Fox News on board GOP politicians have the politicl cover they need to get into the 21st century on this important issue. And for Kyle, instead of better positioning of a losing message to a fast growing group, they can change the message.
It is sad when politicians can’t get in front of talk radio.
Linda
November 8th, 2012
8:38 pm
Democratic pundits have been trying to spread more lies about the natl. debt, claiming that Clinton left a surplus & that the entire $10.626 debt at the end of the Bush Adm. was racked up under his watch. The fact is that Clinton submitted balanced budgets 6 to 9 mts. prior to the beginning of the fiscal year, but at the end of each fiscal year, oops, there were more expenditures than revenues. Debt was added to the natl. debt. each & every year under Clinton.
At least there were budgets actually submitted & passed under Clinton.
Obama’s budget did not receive a single vote from Democrats. The Senate vote was 99-0, making his budget the most radical in the history of the US. La La Land.
How can we have a balanced budget without a budget? The Democrats have not passed one in over 3 years.
md
November 8th, 2012
8:38 pm
The problem with immigration reform is it has been done before……and there in lies the problem.
After amnesty #1, those that came in illegally KNEW we would do nothing in the future……and we didn’t. A second amnesty will only lead to a 3rd…….and then a 4th……etc……
Most parents learn that with their children early on, they will test you and test you until you say no…….it’s the same thing here.
Gringos
November 8th, 2012
8:48 pm
md
Even Romney wasn’t going to round up folks and send them home.
More folks have been sent back under Obama than any President in recent history.
People are kidding themselves if they think that the US under any President was going to start deporting folks by the millions.
Call it what you want, but even the right knows millions were not going to be sent back. At least the sensible ones.
Time to increase border patrol more than ever. Tell those that are here they must get a work permit and pay taxes and fine those business caught using folks without permits. Anyone with a work permit, but here illegally can not become a citizen unless they go back home and apply to come here, but since they are here……. time to pay taxes.
Heck on half of them coming from Mexico. They are here from Asia, Easter Europe, Africa, Russia.
Hillbilly D
November 8th, 2012
8:50 pm
md @ 8:38
That’s true. The last time they did it, they were going to grant the amnesty and tighten up the borders. As we know, they only did half of it and it’ll happen pretty much the same way this time. It’s all about protecting that source of cheap labor.
Gringos
November 8th, 2012
8:53 pm
“It’s all about protecting that source of cheap labor.”
Exactly. And that has nothing do with D or R, despite how each side sells it. It is a shame.
Aquagirl
November 8th, 2012
8:53 pm
Most parents learn that with their children early on, they will test you and test you until you say no…….it’s the same thing here.
Wow, I wonder why Hispanics are abandoning Republicans in droves? Seeing yourself as a parent to those childish little brown people just might have something to do with it.
Dusty
November 8th, 2012
8:53 pm
So we need to tell Republicans how to change? What a joke! Has anyone noticed an obvious liberal trait on this blog? I mean, total bat brains loose in the night!!
And they want to run the country!
Let us hope that Obama with his supposedly high IQ will invite none of these people to Washington. The Chicago crowd is bad enough but these light weight lunatics couldn’t run a turtle farm.
So I’ll stick with Republican losers who still look better than Democrat “winners”. Give it a few months. We’ll be in the 17 trillion $$$ level and Dems will be saying that “Bush did it”and there’s nothing wrong with owing a LITTLE MONEY.and they believe it!!l
4 more years
November 8th, 2012
8:54 pm
Progressive Humanist
You’ve never seen a shift when whites were headed towards a plurality rather than a majority.
Who cares about race? Are you saying people of non-European heritage cannot be fiscally conservative?
What about Asians and Jews? They have the highest savings ratios. Translation: They save even more money than “whites.” And I don’t believe that there are different races, only the human race. My point is “whites” don’t have a lock on being fiscally smart and I am tired of dems talking about us non-pure-European people like we need welfare!
Linda
November 8th, 2012
8:57 pm
ATLien@8:31, Obama & his team of progressives (Marxists, socialists, Communists, nationalists,, statists, whatever you want to call them) are systemically & deliberately out to destroy the United States of America & they will win.
You tell me what program or newscaster on FOX News has stated that fact.
No one owns any part of me. I am cynical & believe nothing until I conduct my own research. My material is original.
Your personal attacks are typical of an Obama minion & your misspelling & lack of punctuation displays an inferior intelligence, again, typical of an Obama minion.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
November 8th, 2012
9:00 pm
“Republicans dont have a messaging problem, you have a policy problem.”
—————–
Yep. We believe folks should work for a living, and that those who work harder and smarter should do better than those who don’t.
These days, that ain’t cool.
4 more years
November 8th, 2012
9:02 pm
Lil’ Barry
I 100% agree. The grasshoppers are mad that you won’t hand over all your hard work. That makes you greedy.
H.E. Pennypacker
November 8th, 2012
9:08 pm
Linda,
Perhaps in all the research you conduct you can discover that the GOP’s war on science has driven a majority of the nation’s educated towards the Democrats. If it makes you feel superior to think otherwise, have at it.
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/07/20/zogby-obama-outperforming-romney-among-upscale-voters/
Dusty
November 8th, 2012
9:10 pm
No Gringos.8:53
Immigration is not just about cheap labor. It is about following the laws of the USA.
A member of my family is from South America.. It took him almost ten years to follow all the immigration requirements. He stuck it out and is a fine American citizen, a favorite among our family.
He wonders how people can sneak across the border or make other excuses and demand to be a citizen without following the law. He had to do it. Shouldn’t everyone be treated the same?
No one likes to be pushed out of line and that is what is happening in many cases. Now that the election is over, perhaps President Obama will stop allowing special cases to get out of line and break established laws. We shall see. . .
@@
November 8th, 2012
9:13 pm
Looks like those lazy slut, prostitute and FemiNazi takers are stuck on the Democratic plantation, huh?
When the dems reduce them to nothing more than their lady parts, I’d say yes!
Linda
November 8th, 2012
9:15 pm
Barack@8:59, You have apparently missed waaaaaaaaay too many Sunday School classes.
Liberal instructions: When you can’t intelligently debate the issues, attack the messenger, even if it’s a woman, & if you can’t tell the difference between a woman & a lady, don’t worry about it. Don’t even think about how you would want your own daughters, mothers, grandmothers, etc. to be treated by others. Forget the Golden Rule! Just try to intimidate & smear those with which you disagree. Call them names, as if you were in 3rd grade.
JDW
November 8th, 2012
9:15 pm
@Tiberius…”The media harped on every parsed comment Romney or Ryan made, and blew them all out of proportion. All in the name of saving their mistake from getting booted from office.”
OMG BUSTED how did you ever GUESS…btw do you have a spare tinfoil hat I have a neighbor that would like to hear the same voices that are apparently speaking to you.
4 more years
November 8th, 2012
9:16 pm
If our lovely country is reduced to Greece and Spain-level lifestyle because there are too many grasshoppers and all of the ants have given up, dems will only have themselves to blame. Workers don’t need more on their shoulders.
Ayn Rand was right the “do gooders” need to give their own money to (government) “charity.” I can choose my own charities.
md
November 8th, 2012
9:17 pm
“Seeing yourself as a parent to those childish little brown people just might have something to do with it.”
Analogies are used so one can expand the mind……but some can’t see past the written word, their minds won’t let them.
So for the slower ones among us, the lesson was about saying no, not parenting.
And gringos and HD, I agree…..it won’t much matter what is done if the border remains open……I’d lay odds that that won’t be taken care of until a really really undesirable comes in with a nasty little surprise…..and it won’t be pretty. Action through crisis is our mo………
Dusty
November 8th, 2012
9:19 pm
Lil Barry & four more years,
Your posts are like a breath of fresh air.. Good to hear from the sensible.ones here.
Gringos
November 8th, 2012
9:20 pm
Dusty
It is about cheap labor. Both parties and big business have you hoodwinked. No offense, but I’m sure that doesn’t take much effort for you to be bamboozled.
Why didn’t you say anything to the other blogger? He indicated the same thing.
Cry on dusty, cry on little man
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
November 8th, 2012
9:20 pm
Thank you Dusty. Back at ya!
BTW, what’s with all the new sockpuppets on the left side of the blog these last few days?
Linda
November 8th, 2012
9:21 pm
Mr. Pennypacker@9:08, I tried to read your site, but it seems that the ads for Obama prevent that.
Gringos
November 8th, 2012
9:21 pm
Dusty
Supply & Demand. Study and understand it.
As long as there is demand, you will have supply.
That might be a hard concept for you to grasp, but as time allows, look into it
md
November 8th, 2012
9:22 pm
” Now that the election is over, perhaps President Obama will stop allowing special cases to get out of line and break established laws. ”
Now Dusty, we are talking about the guy that deemed an entire industry as “special”……..the construction industry lost twice as many jobs as the auto industry would have, but they didn’t get to be “special”……
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
November 8th, 2012
9:22 pm
I don’t think it’s about cheap labor for the Democrat party, Gringos. If it were, wouldn’t their union thug buddies be screaming bloody murder?
No, it’s about creating more new Democrat voters, which benefits both the party and the thugs.
H.E. Pennypacker
November 8th, 2012
9:25 pm
Linda,
Here is a summary of Zogby’s poll in Forbes, same information.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnzogby/2012/07/18/zogby-demographics-and-2012-income-education-class/
JDW
November 8th, 2012
9:25 pm
O’ Tiberius…regarding the Lily Ledbetter act…it resets the statute of limitations for equal pay lawsuits wtih every paycheck…it makes companies liable if they don’t adhere to equal pay standards and the discrimnation is not discovered within 180 days of your first paycheck.
Hillbilly D
November 8th, 2012
9:28 pm
Supply & Demand. Study and understand it.
Anybody who lived anywhere around Atlanta got a textbook lesson back in the early to mid-80’s. Wages had been stagnant for quite a while. When things began to take off, especially when Gwinnett started to boom. A labor shortage started to develop. As you would expect, wages started to rise. I don’t remember what the minimum wage was at that time but there were fast food places in Gwinnett that started paying $7 or so, to get people to work (many came from the surrounding areas). That didn’t last long. They found there source of cheap labor and then with the amnesty, the flood gates really opened. That’s one reason wages have stayed basically flat for quite a while. They by-passed the law of supply and demand by gaming the system.
Gringos
November 8th, 2012
9:29 pm
Lil Barry
GWB and Reagan were Democrats as well as McCain.
Reagan loved him some amnesty
Bush loved him some as well, but couldn’t get it done
McCain was for basically what Bush was for.
But nice try, unwise one
Archibald Leach
November 8th, 2012
9:29 pm
I guess Lil Bailout is mad that the Obama campaign was smarter and worked harder than Romney’s campaign. Maybe Newt Gingrich will do better in 2016
Hillbilly D
November 8th, 2012
9:31 pm
*that should be their source of cheap labor but I threw that in to keep the Grammar Nazis on their toes.
Gringos
November 8th, 2012
9:31 pm
They bypassed it by getting getting their supply from a cheaper labor source.
It is still a supply and demand curve regardless of where they get their supply.
Those dynamics didn’t change. They just had lower labor costs for the product or service being sold
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
November 8th, 2012
9:31 pm
Gringos, you might try reading my actual post. My comments were related to the Democrat motive for ignoring immigration law.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
November 8th, 2012
9:37 pm
How’s it feel to be just as big an idiot today as you were on Monday?
JamVet
November 8th, 2012
9:39 pm
Keep on hoping that America tanks, cons. You have written her off, but we laugh at you and your Grecian histrionics.
But who am I to say anything? That Uncle Sam hating/drown him in a bathtub stategery (hat tip, W) has worked so well for you recently!
Gringos
November 8th, 2012
9:40 pm
Barry
Open your eyes, over the last 40 yrs there are just a few instances were Republicans tried to apply the law.
They both have been complicit. You are just a sucker who thinks that the Republicans , except in a few cases, are doing much better.
You need some more Republican names. They are both guilty, but you are welcome to stay on the gullibility wagon you have been on for years
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
November 8th, 2012
9:40 pm
Nite nite, Barack. And don’t fret, I’m sure Obozo will be getting you your bailout real soon.
Linda
November 8th, 2012
9:40 pm
Mr. Pennypacker@9:25, Your site doesn’t match your original claim of the GOP’s war on science.
Hillbilly D
November 8th, 2012
9:41 pm
Gringo @ 9:31
That’s true. The point is though that some of the same people who practically worship the concept of the free market and supply and demand (and the rule of law, by the way), found a way to step around it, when it wasn’t to their advantage. They talked the talk but they didn’t walk the walk.
4 more years
November 8th, 2012
9:41 pm
Barack is the best–It feels like this: I hope you don’t ruin this lovely country, but you probably will because you are a grasshopper and you only know how to steal and not produce. Then I will expatriate and well you can watch the Greece riot videos to see what will happen to you.
@@
November 8th, 2012
9:43 pm
Obama’s gilded lily.
Lilly Ledbetter Act Meaningless To Women Without Jobs
I’m out until tomorrow evening. I’ve got a job and it ISN’T working for Obama.
Progressive Humanist
November 8th, 2012
9:44 pm
4 more years:
Who cares about race?? The Republican party better begin to care about race. They just got their rear ends handed to them for the second time in a row and lost the popular vote for the 5th time in the last 6th presidential elections. But I hope you guys keep “not caring” about race. I prefer to win elections. My guy is in charge of you for another next four years.
And I certainly didn’t imply that whites had a lock on fiscal responsibility. As a matter of fact, it’s the “white” party that ruins the economy every time they get into power and the Democrats who have to clean it up each time. The Dow performs better under Dems. Spending increases more slowly under Dems. The deficit rises at a slower pace under Dems. Health care costs rise more slowly under Dems. I’d say that if anything, the white party has a lock on fiscal irresponsibility.
mike
November 8th, 2012
9:44 pm
Could Romney have won the election?
______________________________________
“Political space exists for a new rightist vision of the economy. It’s called economic nationalism.
This position says that America’s economy has been getting sick from uncontrolled globalization for years now, and that the answer is to reassert our original economic tradition, which goes back to Hamilton, of running our economy explicitly in the national interest, not in mere deference to the supposed benevolence of free markets.
Its first big policy would be repudiating free trade. (This I support.)
Its second big policy would be cutting mass immigration. (I take no position here, but it’s a natural part of the package.)
If Romney had been serious about these policies, he could have offered the American people a real alternative to Obama. Both these policies are popular with the voting public, and even more so with the rightist and centrist voters Romney needed to win.
Romney did make some noises about cracking down on China’s abusive trade relationship with the United States. He did take positions on immigration (especially illegal) that were more opposed than Obama. I even thought for a while that he was really going to ride these issues.
But he didn’t. He took the positions best for him, but never really used them. His campaign, in the end, was all ‘Your economy sucks.’ ”
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article37409.html
_____________________________________
Of course, to do so he would have to go against his corporate handlers who profit from “free” trade. Not very likely.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
November 8th, 2012
9:45 pm
Not that I would ever do it, but Canada is looking might attractive these days. They’re no more socialist than the rabble on this side of the border, but they have competent leadership and aren’t destroying their finances or their currency.
Progressive Humanist
November 8th, 2012
9:47 pm
4 more- Why don’t you just expatriate right now? Delta is waiting. Get your sorry rear somewhere else. You won’t be missed by real Americans.