Long Term Viability of the Republican Party

[afleitch]

My opening salvo is probably what you expected. Having the same platform on gay rights in 2012 or in 2016 as you did a decade ago is as politically helpful as having an anti-civil rights platform in the 1970's. The GOP doesn't even allow it's front runners to even position themselves in favour of civil unions never mind gay marriage. LGBT voters made up 5% of all voters in this election. In some urban areas from what we know about the LGBT community, this number is probably considerably greater (Denver, parts of Florida) that in close elections is going to cost you not just votes, but states. If you are anti-LGBT it used to be thought 'oh well the gays won't vote for me, who cares.' The same was true of other minorities in the past, but issues of equality matter not just to those they effect directly but to their families and friends. A mother is not going to vote for a party that treats her son like sh-t.

Now I'm a long term member of the Conservative Party here. I know exactly what it's like to loose an election, then think you lost it because you were not conservative enough, then tack to the right and lose again. People don't follow parties; they really don't. They don't tell you that you've lost them, For every person who turns up at a rally there are a dozen who haven't told you they've stopped supporting you or don't want to vote for you.  Parties need to follow people and adapt to survive. We had to go from the party that tried to stop children even learning about gay people to supporting gay marriage in ten years. We had to do it because that's they way the public went. Make your peace with public healthcare. Most conservatives in the western world did this nearly two generations ago.

Get to know minorities and stop making assumptions about them. There's been talk of why the GOP can't sell itself to Catholics because 'aren't Catholics supposed to be conservative' so you know, maybe ramp up the whole gays and abortion thing.

The Religious Right might help galvanise your core, but they won't win you elections. There is an increasing number of Americans who don't consider themselves religious or are unaffiliated with any one faith. It is expanding; they make up nearly a third of Americans under 30.  They currently vote heavily Democratic. 'Rape baby', anti-science bullsh-t doesn't cut it.