Why don't Republicans panic and bedwet like Democrats do?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

In 2008 and 2012 the Republican nominees were losing, and Republicans were not freaking out. In 2008 they just kept raving about the Bradley Effect and in 2012 the whole unskewed polls nonsense.

Now we have an election where the Democratic nominee is actually LEADING, and yet we still have some insane red avatars going on meltdowns and freakouts of "OMG TRUMP IS GOING TO WIN WE'RE ALL DOOMED!" What the hell?

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

because, deep down, republicans know damn well that they would do perfectly o.k. under a democratic government.

[RINO Tom]

I would assume that your average Republican is cockier than your average Democrat.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Because nothing matters.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Republicans have mental health privilege. If they didn't, they'd be Democrats.

[LLR]

When you're ahead, it's bedwetting. When you're behind, it's dog sweat.

[White Trash]

When you're ahead, it's bedwetting. When you're behind, it's dog sweat.

[Mr. Smith]

GOP these days always think of themselves as on a crusade, little different from the New Age Left. All loss does is make them stronger and angrier

The Dems on the other hand tend to overestimate the strength they have based on pure logic in a moment, so when an emotional argument sells the other side, they falter. Rationality is expected too many times to ironically the point of irrationality.

[Storebought]

Because the GOP has historically a much better voter selection and turnout operation than the Democrats do. The typical GOP voter is more reliable as well: the Democratic Party frets every election over their own voter turnout in a way over which (until Trump) the GOP has never had to worry.

[Ban my account ffs!]

The scale for Republicans goes from silence to intense mocking if they win.

The scale for Democrats goes from sheer panic to relief with some schadenfreude.

There is a clear mismatch.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

And yet... Democrats are the ones who should be panicked?

Many Dems here are panicked because they would regard a Trump victory as a major disaster.  So even if the chances of him winning aren't that great, it's something worth worrying about.  However, few of the Republicans here are panicked about a Clinton win (heck many Republicans here don't want Trump to win anyway, even if they're not backing Clinton per se), as they don't necessarily think she'd be that much worse than the president we already have.

this is what i mean. clinton isn't an existential threat to her opponents the same way trump is to many of his.

[Xing]

A good percentage of Republicans never actually believe that they're going to lose (plenty thought McCain and Romney were actually going to win the election.) Those that do come to terms with it pretty early. I think Democrats panic specifically when they start out ahead, and then their lead decreases. In 2014, it became pretty clear to me early on that Democrats were going to lose the Senate, so I didn't panic so much as become resigned to it.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Democrats are usually trying to conceal something really important to them that they believe the rest of the public would not accept until it's a fait accompli.

Most people who live in perpetual fear of being found out are panickers and bedwetters.

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This was spoken when Michael Dukakis was up by 17 points.

[Crumpets]

Just a theory. Both Democrats and Republicans think the overall US electorate is around 60-40 conservative. Democrats think 10% just comes over to them each election because the Republican Party is terrible, but could go home at any minute. Republicans think they only lose because the Democrats rig elections, give people phones, intimidate, etc. and have a right to win pretty much every election.