What Happened To The GOP in 2012

[barfbag]

There were some big names such as Rubio, Thune, and Christie who decided not to run. I consider Mitt Romney to be a phenomenal candidate though.  He's been made out to be a poor choice by the media but so has every Republican since Lincoln. Ronald Reagan was once considered to be an unelectable doofus who was going senile and he did quite fine so I'm not sure Newt Gingrich was a poor choice either. Ron Paul as well ran on a platform that represents nearly half the nation. Many people would love to see a more limited government as the founding fathers have wanted. Herman Cain is another candidate who could have caught on but dropped out too early to really be able to tell. Other than the above mentioned candidates, it was a weak field, but was it as week as the 2004 Democrats? Al Sharpton, Carol Moseley-Braun, Dennis Kucinich, Bob Graham, Dick Gephardt, and Wesley Clark were hardly going to have a chance to defeat Bush. In comparison to past Republican Primaries, I think it was at least as strong of a field as 1996.

[barfbag]

Many people would love to see a more limited government as the founding fathers have wanted.

That's why the GOP lost.

No we lost because 4 million conservatives did not vote due to religious reasons or viewing Romney as too liberal.

[barfbag]

The R's lost because they don't understand Generation Y and Hispanics. Why is it always the GOP is too moderate when they lose anyway? I mean a bunch of people have a press conference on C-Span the next day after the election and its like they have no idea as to why their party lost. Its like they are in a different country. I am not even saying that to be shocking. I mean it. Did these people even look at the last US Census? Have they been in the Hispanic Community before? They want the Tea Party to become the Republican Party which is a total loser in minority precients. They have to get their head out of the sand and start listening to Generation Y and The Hispanic Community and stop saying dumb things about Hispanics(i.e. Steve King.) The Tea Party influence may have been good for one cycle in 2010 but The Tea Party had its 15 minutes of fame and its up.

Another reason we lost is because it normally goes 8 years of one party followed by 8 years of the other party.

[barfbag]

A lot of money was spent on the presidential election as opposed to the House and Senate seats. We also had mishaps in MO which cost us. We'll get them next time.

[barfbag]

A lot of money was spent on the presidential election as opposed to the House and Senate seats. We also had mishaps in MO which cost us. We'll get them next time.

Romney still won MO though even with the Akin factor.

That's not what I meant. I meant Todd Akin's remarks hurt Romney and the Republican Party everywhere.

[barfbag]

The GOP didn't realize that White Men are declining as a share of the electorate and population.

There we go again with the left playing the race card. Even if Republicans reach out to minorities, they're still going to be called racists by the media and left.

[barfbag]

The GOP didn't realize that White Men are declining as a share of the electorate and population.

There we go again with the left playing the race card. Even if Republicans reach out to minorities, they're still going to be called racists by the media and left.

No the Republicans thought they would be a little more turnout than there was(hence I mentioned Romney's pollster thinking the same thing.) At the same time they underestimated minority turnout. 

Keep in mind White Women voted for Romney too as a block. Its minority women that Republicans have a major problem with as a voting block.

Yes that's true but we don't need to be dividing people by race all the time. We did underestimate minority turnout.

[barfbag]

The GOP didn't realize that White Men are declining as a share of the electorate and population.

There we go again with the left playing the race card. Even if Republicans reach out to minorities, they're still going to be called racists by the media and left.

Well, call a spade a spade, eh what?

Barfbag is heavily oversimplifying things here.  While there are some racists within the GOP, some of their policies, even when they have a racially disparate impact, can be explained without using racism as the reason.  If you have a group of people who largely don't support your party, why bother about the impact your policies have on them?  Also, if there are ways to keep them from the polls, why not?  Not that being dismissing is good politics in the long term, even without the changing demographic situation.  But they can be explained as resulting from hardball politics rather than racial animus.

My point was that even if Republicans reach out to minorities, Democrats will find a reason to call them racists. Regardless of where Republicans stand on the issues, I don't think much can be done to reach out to minorities.

[barfbag]

We can ask what happened to the losing party in every election year. What happened to the GOP in 2012? They won the House again.

[barfbag]

We can ask what happened to the losing party in every election year. What happened to the GOP in 2012? They won the House again.

Well, we maintained house control through the redistricting process despite losing the overall congressional popular vote, but who's counting?

Both parties have won the house without the popular vote. It's not like there was a big difference in the popular vote anyways. I expect 2014 to be interesting. We might see some Democrats running away from Obama and back towards the Clintons. I expect Pryor, Begich, Hagan, and Landrieu to have difficulties once people start paying attention around October.

[barfbag]

In my opinion, 2012 was the first presidential campaign in a long time where the Republicans did not try to use divisive social issues to win, and instead focused on their economic plan (cut spending/cut taxes for rich people). The problem is that their economic plan is unpopular, but in large part Republicans have been able to hold power and pass that agenda because they were able to divide people with those hot button issues. With America moving toward the other end of those issues, Republicans are either going to have to find some new things to scare people about, or change their policies to be more palatable.

What makes you think people are moving to the left?

[barfbag]

In my opinion, 2012 was the first presidential campaign in a long time where the Republicans did not try to use divisive social issues to win, and instead focused on their economic plan (cut spending/cut taxes for rich people). The problem is that their economic plan is unpopular, but in large part Republicans have been able to hold power and pass that agenda because they were able to divide people with those hot button issues. With America moving toward the other end of those issues, Republicans are either going to have to find some new things to scare people about, or change their policies to be more palatable.

What makes you think people are moving to the left?

It's not really "moving to the left" so much as it is the fog clearing and people having a more clear view for economic issues.

Things like same-sex marriage becoming more socially acceptable is part of that. It's no longer going to be a wedge issue for Republicans to capitalize on, as seen when Ted Cruz just said that he believes it's up to the states to decide.

I just wanted him to answer. This country is moving a little to the left on social issues. Conservatives seem to have the upper hand on issues they don't talk about as much as they could. School vouchers, school prayer, privatization of social security, the death penalty, the fairness of affirmative action, and guns seem to be things they could win on. I'm not in agreement with them on all of these, but it could help them in trending states.