GOP's Wilderness.
GOP's wilderness
From the moment that it became apparent last week that Barack Obama and the Democrats had won a decisive victory, some Republican spinners have been peddling the notion that it really wasn't so bad.
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There have been greater landslides, they say, and a few of the endangered GOP senators (including Kentucky's Mitch McConnell) survived.
That's true, but it proves only that things could have been worse for the defeated party, and that's always the case. The political landscape is nevertheless very bleak for Republicans.
Outside of voters above the age of 65, Democrats gained at Republican expense in almost every significant category. The GOP lost ground in the suburbs, in the South and in the West, among women, whites and the young. Its cause seems hopeless with African Americans, and its anti-immigrant platforms have alienated Latinos, the nation's fastest growing demographic group. And that's only a partial list.
Moreover, the divisive wedge issues upon which Republicans have relied for 40 years seem in eclipse. Only proposals to restrict gay rights fared well in state referenda, and they didn't translate into support for the GOP. Anti-abortion measures went nowhere. Efforts to scare gun owners had no traction. Nor did alarms about '60s radicals or "socialism." Race hardly requires comment.
The inevitable temptation for Republicans will be to hope that the Obama administration and Democratic Congress make mistakes and to focus on finding attractive candidates for 2010 and 2012.
But that is simply wishing for good luck. The bigger and more urgent challenge is for Republicans to use this period out of power to decide who they are. Conservatives? How do they persuade an increasingly skeptical electorate that a party of big spending, high deficits, a misbegotten war, managerial incompetence and authoritarian views of executive power is really conservative?
A two-party system has served America well. More than just Republicans must hope that the GOP can figure out how to become relevant to the 21st Century.
Editor's comment: You can get a sense of how long the wilderness experience will last by the GOP's response to someone like me, a Black registered Republican, who is like a LONE voice crying in the wilderness: they go out of their way to further ALIENATE us!
Very soon, the Republican Party will become a MONOLITHIC WHITES ONLY Club.
My hero, Abraham Lincoln, who founded the party because of Blacks, is STILL "rolling around" in his grave, out of frustration and anger!
From the moment that it became apparent last week that Barack Obama and the Democrats had won a decisive victory, some Republican spinners have been peddling the notion that it really wasn't so bad.
Advertisement
There have been greater landslides, they say, and a few of the endangered GOP senators (including Kentucky's Mitch McConnell) survived.
That's true, but it proves only that things could have been worse for the defeated party, and that's always the case. The political landscape is nevertheless very bleak for Republicans.
Outside of voters above the age of 65, Democrats gained at Republican expense in almost every significant category. The GOP lost ground in the suburbs, in the South and in the West, among women, whites and the young. Its cause seems hopeless with African Americans, and its anti-immigrant platforms have alienated Latinos, the nation's fastest growing demographic group. And that's only a partial list.
Moreover, the divisive wedge issues upon which Republicans have relied for 40 years seem in eclipse. Only proposals to restrict gay rights fared well in state referenda, and they didn't translate into support for the GOP. Anti-abortion measures went nowhere. Efforts to scare gun owners had no traction. Nor did alarms about '60s radicals or "socialism." Race hardly requires comment.
The inevitable temptation for Republicans will be to hope that the Obama administration and Democratic Congress make mistakes and to focus on finding attractive candidates for 2010 and 2012.
But that is simply wishing for good luck. The bigger and more urgent challenge is for Republicans to use this period out of power to decide who they are. Conservatives? How do they persuade an increasingly skeptical electorate that a party of big spending, high deficits, a misbegotten war, managerial incompetence and authoritarian views of executive power is really conservative?
A two-party system has served America well. More than just Republicans must hope that the GOP can figure out how to become relevant to the 21st Century.
Editor's comment: You can get a sense of how long the wilderness experience will last by the GOP's response to someone like me, a Black registered Republican, who is like a LONE voice crying in the wilderness: they go out of their way to further ALIENATE us!
Very soon, the Republican Party will become a MONOLITHIC WHITES ONLY Club.
My hero, Abraham Lincoln, who founded the party because of Blacks, is STILL "rolling around" in his grave, out of frustration and anger!
Labels: GOP, News reporting, Politics, Race, Racism, Republicanism
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 10:36 AM
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