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Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Sun coverage
Republicans set aside many differences — over immigration, gay rights and climate change, among other things — in their fervor to win the White House.
But after losing a second straight presidential campaign and squandering a prime opportunity to win control of the Senate, those combustible issues now are fueling a fight over the direction of the GOP and what Republicans, as a national party, should represent.
Mitt Romney had barely conceded defeat and walked off the stage in Boston when the rupture emerged, between those calling for drastic change and others who said the problem was not the Republican Party but its nominee.
Romney and his campaign team shoulder a generous share of the blame. He committed any number of blunders that, fairly or not, reinforced the image of the former Massachusetts governor as an uncaring and out-of-touch aristocrat.
His strategists erred by ceding the television waves for much of the early contest, leaving the Obama campaign and its allies to eagerly fill the void with depictions of Romney as a soulless corporate raider. The Republicans’ much-touted turnout effort was vastly overmatched by President Barack Obama’s state-of-the-art operation.
But the party’s problems go deeper than the failings of any individual or a single team of tacticians. For many voters in broad swaths of the country — throughout California and elsewhere along the Pacific Coast, across the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic states — the Republican brand is poison.
The party’s need to change that — and disagreement over the best way to do it — is likely to make the four years before the 2016 election highly contentious.
“You have to have a come-to-Jesus meeting at all levels, both state and national,” said Stuart Spencer, chief campaign strategist for Ronald Reagan, who has worked in and around Republican politics for more than half a century.
In the late 1990s, he began publicly urging the party to reconsider its hard-line stance on illegal immigration, warning — presciently, it turned out — of the damage it would do among Hispanic voters.
To win, a party has to reflect the nation it seeks to lead, Spencer said, and increasingly, the GOP seemed out of step with an electorate that every four years seemed to grow more ethnically varied and culturally broad-minded.
John Weaver, another veteran party strategist, was even more blunt.
“If we’re going to be anything but a regional, middle-aged white-man party, we have to do the obvious thing, which is, first, accept the reality that America is a diverse nation and we need to start selling to those people,” Weaver said. “There is climate change. Accept that. There are gay people in our midst, marrying one another. Get over it. ... The government isn’t going to deport 15 million (illegal immigrants), and they’re not going to deport themselves.”
Of course, what some see as pragmatism, others consider a fire sale of party principles. And while it is one thing to compromise on, say, which tax breaks are fair game for deficit reduction, it is another to shed principle on issues with a moral cast like abortion.
Some argue that Romney lost not because he was too extreme, as Democrats portrayed him, but because he was never at his core a true conservative.
“We wanted someone who would fight for us,” Jenny Beth Martin, a leader of the anti-Washington Tea Party movement, said at a morning-after news conference. “What we got was a weak moderate candidate, handpicked by the Beltway elites and country club establishment wing of the Republican Party. The presidential loss is unequivocally on them.”
A few suggested there really was no problem at all.
Grover Norquist, keeper of an anti-tax pledge signed by most congressional Republicans, suggested that Tuesday actually brought victory to the conservative cause by affirming the GOP’s 2010 takeover of the House and delivering a number of new Republican governors. Yes, he said, it would have been nice to win the White House and take over the Senate. But the conservative tenets of lower taxes and limited government were hardly repudiated.
“Our strength is state by state,” Norquist said, adding that it is there that Republicans would enact the policies — ending teacher tenure, reining in public employee pensions, promoting school choice — that would invigorate the national party from the bottom up.
Not many, though, are as sanguine about losing the White House again or failing to seize the Senate in a year when Democrats defended twice the number of seats as Republicans. Defying the odds, Democrats ended up winning 25 of 33 contests, gaining a seat.
The peril comes down to arithmetic and demographics.
The numbers of young, Asian-American and, especially, Hispanic voters are growing, and they sided overwhelmingly with the Democratic nominee. The ranks of older white voters, the Republican base, are shrinking.
Much of the focus since Election Day has been the repudiation of the GOP by Hispanics. But the party doesn’t have only a Hispanic problem. Women, younger voters and self-described moderates — who were more than half those voting Tuesday — have been put off by the party’s bedrock opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage and, in this last campaign, the demonization of Planned Parenthood.
Romney staked out all of those positions as he fought to secure the Republican nomination in the primaries. All hurt him in the fall.
Four years ago, at an election postmortem by Republican governors, much discussion revolved around the very concerns that have surfaced in the days since Obama’s re-election: the party’s unpopular image nationally, its failure to keep up with Democrats’ superior use of technology, the antagonism of increasingly important voter groups.
Very little has changed since.
Maybe losing two straight presidential campaigns will make a difference, said Weaver and others, who suggested the party needn’t change its philosophy so much as its priorities. Maybe it will take another setback or two. Regardless, they are convinced something has to change and eventually — painfully — will.
“At the end of the day, politicians being the most pragmatic of all creatures will ultimately get to where the math takes them,” Weaver said. “It will not be a pretty process. ... There’s going to be some blood on the floor. But they will ultimately get there.”
The question is: How?
^^ Yeah, communist KGB sleeper agents have taken over America via the Democrat party, bleagh bleagh bleagh.
Stay the wacko course GOPers, the Democrats will take back the house in 2014 for sure.
:-)
And it is also out of touch, and the Republican Party will either reform into a progressive party on the center-right and remain one of the two major parties along with the liberal Democratic Party on center-left or a new progressive party will form out of moderate Republicans (RINOs) and independents. So far, Republicans in Congress and their string pullers seem bent on trying to hold onto their good-old-boy positions; this as the world moves on.
Those that currently own the heart and soul of the Republican Party have no knowledge or appreciation for what the founders of this first of its kind nation in the world undertook when they Declared Independence, and from what governing power of whom that they were setting themselves and their posterity to be free. To wit:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men," ~ July 4, 1776
They were breaking from the privileged few that quite literality lorded it over them and considered themselves to be entitled, by God no less, to govern the lives of all of those that circumstance made unequal.
Those they broke from were the same self-entitled few that were able to hold on in the plantation South to such a degree that they thought they could own people and treat and hold in their place all others as white trash. Their governing power was ended when the first Republican president, Abe Lincoln, led the Union to end their dominance and assure all that government of the people, by the people, and for the people would not perish from the Earth.
Those who control the Republican Party through willing lackeys have by inheritance or hook-and-crook been able to own the best politicians that money can buy, and dupe some willing pretenders into whitewashing their dirty laundry and to regale them with further riches at the expense of a declining middle class, working poor, totally destitute, new arrivals to the land, and a younger generation trying to get a start from under a pile of educational debt (they can't just ask daddy for some loot). However, there are many people of great means that have night-and-day worked hard to amass their capital and they have not time for the GOP merchants of greed---like Warren Buffet who made it the good-old-fashioned way---he earned it as have the 47% Romney has no time for.
"The question is: How?"
No. I say the real question that should be asked is: Who cares?
The Tea/Republican Party has now been reduced down to nothing but a protest movement designed to complain, block, and obstruct, that is only geared to try to get into power....but provide absolutely no reason why they should be in power.
I really do hope they double down and permit the ultra-right wing news media to further dictate their policies.
Because in subsequent elections, no amount of gerrymandering, fearmongering and voter suppression is going to help them.
They will be reduced to nothing. For generations to come.
Please bang the cowbell louder, righties. That's what makes your song complete. Really hit that thing! I NEED MORE COWBELL, BABY!
Comment removed by moderator. Personal Attack
The comments by truthserum help us understand why the GOP is going the way of the rotary telephone and buggy whip.
But there's still a bit of good news for republicans -- Romney won 93% the 428 counties that make up the Appalachia region, that part of the US that remains mostly white, extremely poor and very uneducated.
Comment removed by moderator. Personal Attack
If the GOP was a person, he/she would be prescribed several anti-sociopathic drugs. They are beyond delusional.
The Republican party isnt out of touch but the candidatews they choose surely are. It's not just Romney either, the knuckle head who commented about women being raped sure didn't help matters. The republican party needs to communicate with the common voter , stop bashing women and thier rights to choose,and for God sakes pick a candidate who is real.
Sorry, can't accept that man-made CO2 is the primary climate-driver nor is it a major catalyst for extreme weather events.
A carbon tax to prevent "climate change" will finish off the middle-class. Unfortunately the Dims are unable to connect the dots.
If the GOP would stop denigrating a woman's right to choose-they might actually win an election-bottom line.
Ryan was too hard lined on abortion. Turned off woman voters.
Romney was viewed as out of touch. His 47% comment was beyond a dumb thing to say whether he truly believed it or not.
It the party wants to attach itself to people like truth serum...have at it. Maybe one day you'll understand why your party has collapsed.
The GOP needs to change on abortion rights, immigration and trickle down economics. They will likely be looking from the outside again in 2016 if big changes aren't implemented.
KGB?
Communist sympathizer?
Republicans really want to align themselves with this type of individual?
I'm not sure the Republicans still see what they did or how they went wrong.Romney must have made some whopping promises to his SUPER PACS if he was elected,of course he would deny it.But he's very easy to stomp his feet and raise his voice after the election about Obama. Fact is, THEY went wrong when they allowed the tea party to overtake them.The tea party opened the doors to all the crazy groups swinging the republican party off center as they were before.The moderate republicans can see it...not Romney or Ryan.
There is also the issue of Mrs. Rommey. Yes, she is very attractive and was made more so during the campaign as she had beauticians, nail technicians and wardrobe stylists traveling with her to ensure her appearance. She didn't look like a stay-at-home mother/wife any more. BUT I believe she did as much harm as anyone to her husband's campaign when she referred to Americans as "you people". How snobbish, how thoughtless, how rude.
The GOP, like the democrats, is over run with politicians that will say what they think the voters want to hear.
After obama pushed "obamacare" instead of focusing on the economy, many voters struck back in the 2010 elections, voting in more conservative representatives.
The GOP misread this and produced a presidential campaign far too right for most of the country, especially with women's health and gay right's issues with a little too much anti-immigration thrown in.
If you are going to say what the voter's want to hear you better make sure you ARE saying what the voters want to hear.
What Republican party?
Those that wear the Republican label are totalitarian, corrupt, and incompetent that have absolutely nothing in common with the traditional Republican party of Eisenhower, Rockefeller, Dirksen, Hatfield, George Romney, Ford and some others.
The Traditional Republicans and moderates have been , for the most part, ran out of the party.
The only way that the traditional Republican party can return to prominence is for the Republican voters to politically kill those radical extremists that have made a mockery of traditional Republicanism.
Those voters have to stop voting for the party label and stop listening to the "Big Lie" of the radical extremists.
Then, and only then can the traditional Republicans make a comeback.
The biggest problem I see with the Republican Party stems from Reagan inviting the so-called Moral Majority of the time into the Party with open arms. Religious dogma has been the bane of the GOP ever since, as witnessed to by the statements concerning abortion and birth control.
At the very least, if the GOP were to return to before Reagan did that the Democrats would be in a real fight in many districts.
The second biggest problem is that silly pledge. There has to be room to engage in rational debate and take action based upon logical conclusions, even if that conclusion ran counter to what was thought ahead of time.
All that said, the Democrats also have problems with the moderate segment of the Party. I believe there is a significant number of Democrats who remember JFK and his emphasis on personal duty. The Democratic Party of today has lost touch with that to a noticeable extent, in my opinion.
I ask the moderates of both the Democrats and the Republicans along with independents, those who want a party that would embrace both Ike and JFK, to take a look at the Modern Whigs as a logical alternative and a return to sanity.
I have said it many times .. it is not out-reach.. or messaging..public relations or whatever lunatic idea you think isn't working! It is Policies and Prejudice. The Republican ideology is out dated! They need to adjust to a new generation and demographic that may disagree 180 degrees with them! If they hold on to their old time ideals.. which they are entitled to do... they will lose more and more elections as the people that see the world that way die off year after year!
The R's act like the Taliban.. unable to change or adjust to a new world.. they stand hard with their religious ideology and it is not popular with modern society.. I know you don't like it..but you are becoming irrelevant except in evangelical southern states.. and you cant win any elections with only them as the map clearly showed.
So you have a choice.. stand hard for your ideology and fade away.. or adapt and give up the social issues that keep you out of office.. many agree with fiscal conservatism... but when you bring the social issues in then most people say it isn't worth it to have that kind of lunatic government!
1. Abortion is here to stay! Adjust or lose!
2. People want health care! Figure it out!
3. Women don't want men choosing for them!
4. Religion is personal not national. Keep it to yourself !
5. In a modern world people expect safety nets during bad times.. they work for others and cant predict or change getting unemployed because of the blunders of their idiot bosses! Who are still making a lot of money !
6. They want you out of their bedrooms and love lives.. R's are like perverts that have to know what is happening in their neighbors bedroom!
7. Stop getting your info from Fox News and Rush/Beck! They are lunatics that cost you 5 elections so far! Watch the regular news channels to get a perspective not just spin.
There are more.. but you get the point... you don't have to like it.. it is your choice.. but you will not win many elections...
I personally left the R party over the social issues not the fiscal issues.. I will never let the government legislate personal choice... whether that is who you love or abortion.. or bringing religion into our legislation.. or turning citizens into second class citizens!
Live your life and let others live theirs! You do what you are comfortable with and let others do theirs... it is not for you to judge others! God gave you one life to manage... focus on that life! God is well aware of the others and doesn't need your input!
Judge not lest ye be judged!
Walking along the Vegas Strip ..LV Boulevard. Fancy and not so luxurious cars reflecting glimming lights from neon lights along the edge of roadway, people with their companions walking along, taking pics, and breathing sigh of awe, water burst up on fountain at Bellagio, illuminated by all colors like rainbow. This acts like a dancing fountain. It bursts up and down in various formation.
Bellagio's night action around its fountain is just a small snapshot of what this gambling mecca can boast of for its popularity with up scale hotel rooms, fantastic shows in action, extraordinary foods at diverse food courts along this strips, fancy decoration of their own, outdoor activities with various theme as real model volcanoes and architecture of real historical models, some of which are like statue of liberty, Egyptian Pyramid, or NY's Empire state building, fun ride stuff as high altitude roller coaster, mega scale acquarium and many more to be seen around.. Fancy decorations around Casinos, fountains, volcanoes, theme parks, and other various entertainment venues will always get me some sense of mysteriousness, un definable desire to get immerse to this paradise world, and deliberately submerge myself into un warranted satisfaction and happiness. This feeling is, however, far from simply my desire to get lucky betting my chips at one of my favorite gaming halls, or a wish of being mesmerized into leading me to the other worldly by the luxuriousness, or fancy illuminations of bright, and awesome lights.. Not like such mysteriousness as a UFO visiting Vegas, landing on some hidden corner to rescue the less fortunate.. I don't want to put myself into this category.
And what if what I'm eager to experience cannot be explained away as just a variant symptom of hallucination as many other fancy world, mystique hunting people desire to find, but a search for a genuine quality in my spiritual endeavor for instance? I mean, what if what I thirst for in mind is sincerely producive and conducive one, not like the usual fantacyland, that it just can't be ruled out as an opportunity to find the true reflection of mine..the inner myself??
From this ponderence, I came up with a unique perspective by chance that it might render some insights to people looking for answers for the nation's being so divided ideologically.. The ideological gap is widening daily as new immigrants arrive to America bringing them with cultural diversity and disparity (as a result), social issues as gay marriage right, whether to allow marijuna or equally addictive prescription medicines for recreational use, private ownership of deadly weapons, racial conflicts, government role vs privitization, and many diverse issues to be solved. This differences arise not just in political arena expressed into partisan bickering, Congressional blockade necessary amendments not being enacted, and headed into fiscal cliff. The people are divided too equally on those same issue above, and what approaches (as immigration reform) need to be compromised between the two extremes. Many people feel their intrests and thoughs aren't being properly reflected on those agendas and the direction the country is headed to, and had not had pre experienced knowledge to welcome new immigrants, but not those who cross the line illegally and commonly break the law for survival..for their livelyhood.. And most view this, only in its excuse for compassion to their fellows, isn't acceptable. I view this as unacceptable myself, but my point isn't about this. This issue alone, can bring some sense of confusion and frustration on defining one's existent identities as supposedly be the 'mainstream' to invite new comers inside their circle of 'assimilation'/. Diversity has it merits just within certain boundaries, a certain premise of socially acceptable 'contract' not to be intruded in once social norms..This definition of norms is being invaded the majority feels..The changing demographic reveals the minority is about to become the status of 'majority'. And if what I say here materialize into the internal of yourself to pinpoint more closely your fear, anger and frustration at now, I beg you not to internalize this hoax threat, and there're reasons of hope and opportunities for a positive challenges people face now to become greater value for their life search and internalization of their value system.
The value system, or conventional differences (in ideology, culture, etc) from which the 'division' has arised to sit as the largest obtacle for America's progress and prosperity, aren't exclusive one another I like to insist. They are rather complamentory and supportive one another. What I'm talking about you will feel hard to accept but this is how the life really goes on..Anything that is contrary to what I'm about to say, and persuade you people is the myth, and hoax itself. From the early stage of our education and maturation of our belief and mental system, most of us were being taught more pronounced in the perspective of difference and competition, excellence that also contributed to creativity thru it, and progress and prosperity of the nation.. But this tactic isn't sustainable or producive any longer we came to realize.. In this inter connected world, we came to learn that creativity thru cooperation can play a more significant asset for the progress of humanity. This transcends any narrow sighted concept as 'socialism' alledging to distribute wealth and status equally to general population. This ins't actually a human invented 'concept', or some kind of economic 'theory' at all..
A new era educational role model is more creative to expand each individual's talent and capability to cope with specific situations not by manuals (materials) imposed into their mind from their parents and teachers.. Our inner strenght is much effective and powerful to guide us the direction we're supposed to go, than what we unconditionally being taught we should until recently.. Parents teach their children about social responsibility as cleaning up where they leave after, being responsible for the things they created at schools, on streets, so on, and financial responsibility as only spending within allowance, not borrowing what they aren't able to pay back later, and keep saving and so forth. But more than likely, they fail to teach their children and students dept of value and merits for which they have to do so.. Simply to say, they neglect giving incentives to them, and helping them internalize its value, philosophy in doing so transparently and understandably enough. They are just being taugh that it's socially and morally a right thing to do as they're told by their teachers and parents. This in turn shpes our thinking mechanism to this 'exclusiveness' format unfortunately, as thinking "This isn't certainly a good, or a proper thing to do so, Therefore, it's BAD" "You're not a fool not to know this, so No questining about this and questioning in itself isn't acceptable!" And I'd like to exmaplify one "conservatism" as an analogy. Typical conservatives believe their core values, as financial liability, restraint on theirs and government's somewhat wasteful spending, ethical and moral values (as sexual orientation, crimes, gambling,etc) can never mingle with the more liberals' ideologies.. So the liberal beliefs and agendas must be kept excluded from 'theirs' Compromise on this more looks like a sort of computer virus to get spread around bigger within their inner circle, to create cracks and divisions of their own that is never acceptable to their value system, a huge risk to be avoided.. To the most faithful conservatives, the mid ground in their belief system and compromise seems never an appropriate option. Simply to put, "They rather chose to select divition for the sake of preservation of their conservative beliefs as they were taught and raised"
Now back to their teaching conservatism, its values to the young, they either took less importance on, or deliberately neglected of internalizing those to them, by persuading them more than sufficient reasons to believe, and incentives to let them put such into practice in daily lives. Yes I am about to point out the prevalently mis lead approaches to deliver 'conservatism' to our children. How about naming it a 'fluid, or smart conservatism?' I suggest.. This isn't more closer to the terminology 'moderate conservatism' vs ultra-conservatism. Please don't get mistaken that it's not whether more conservative or less so! Let the merits, true light of conservative value materialize inside out. Don't impose it on others primarily from this scope of being 'stringent and reponsible' to deliver to their children. Many republicans voice the need to give more than enough incentives to businesses to invest and create jobs, but have they endowed equally sufficient incentive to the young to feel motivated to behave more responsibly and conservatively?
True dedication never require a hugely strenous effort and commitment, only with a sufficient incentive to do so. Morality, ethics and sacrifice are precious values far from pain staking impression we'd like to perceive, portray or advertise for their belief.. Removal of the fear from reinforced security can only be a virtue if people feel volunteerism for them and for the society. A small reward to incentivize the young to become a more responsible member (hopefully for them to keep the value of conservatism) doesn't have be any like financial bonus, or any visible in their eyes, but a true gratitude and satisfaction from doing it! Making them enough satisfaction can become reward to them of its own.
It's never a huge and noble notion as its term 'conservatism' deliberately intend to implay to, but our inner desire wanting to become a decent human being, so it's never confined to ceratin bracket of people who calle themselves sane and the normal, but its true value is pretty universal everwhere! Think what true God people really know about. He's not just all mighty omnipotent sacred entity not to be tainted by mankind as many conservatives also like them protrayed the sane and sound (vs the liberals), but God is like peoples' close friends as bible shows this very clearly.. It's very easy to apporach God only if people want to.. I happen to wonder if it's all liberals fault (though I'm not one of them!!) that they can't get closer one another. It's like internalizing it when people do the 'Yoga' or some variety of self meditation, to find the virtual good, which is also the God. And God is universal..
I'm back to the Vegas Scene again from my old memories..mystique ladden nostalgia.. There must be indeed a hidden, secret element a visitor like me can benefit from (in the endeavor to search for the truth, which is God and His spirit should be living in Vegas too! As I reflect upon my such unique feelings and past experience there, God may work differently in different environments.. I don't buy some peoples' perception that there's less of the 'God' element there, or that Vegas is perhaps the least likely place God actually desires his presence, since Vegas is called 'Sin City' with full of human greed and ;less of conservative element which is also 'sin'. God might refuse to bless the greedy and secular elements there, but there're still as many faithful to God there too. So this is not a place God wants us not to go and stay only if we promise we won't become like those same corrupt, but on the contrary, He might wants us do the good job of His.. Helping those abandoned souls, leading them to the path of light, and try his or her own faithfulness to God.. But if one isn't so sure whether God will protect one from the evil temptation, it is probably better not to go to such surroundings.
But when I'm ready, I feel like to try my own faith not to be swayed or interrupted by the evil force in a quiet hotel room, trying to define those mysterious feelings, and keep my promise to God not to gamble, keep away from many evil temptations and find much greater joy from it..The mystique feeling will be revealed by then, which might be a true happiness itself..
The Bush 'dynasty' left the repubs with nothing but an empty gene pool of future candidates and made them overly dependent on cult groups such as the Immoral Majority and the Tea party. On top of that they made huge mistakes with the likes of Palin, Trump, Gengrich, Norquist, Paul, and Haley Barbour who have followings numbering in the 10s.
The dumbocrats, depsite 2012, are not much better off as it is run completely by a vile, vindictive little tyrant named Reid who also is not setting up for the future - so their fall is not too far away also.
The most interesting phenomena going on is the nonpartisan voters who are registering at record numbers. Right now they are 42% of the dems and 52% of the repubs and all of this is happening with no formal organization or funding to increase their numbers. I.e., people are just fed up with BOTH parties and are forming a new movement to express their extreme dissatisfaction.
The Republican party does not need to change to attract Hispanic voters..Republicans control the jobs and they have the purse strings.. There will be many dis satisfied with the Democrats;; The republicans need to recruit them,, College students and hire a public relations to relate to Hispanics... and Hispanic businesses to help create an identity with Hispanics..
I am urging all businesses and C.E.O.'s to not hire College students.. Then T Party members and conservatives to boycott Chinese and Indian businesses..