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Will Republicans change their tune given the shift in demographics?
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2012 Nov 9, 1:43am 15,800 views 46 comments
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MisdemeanorRebel
2012 Nov 19, 7:07am
Romney lost because his voters were composed of aging, dwindling groups; Obama won because his voting demographic was more in line with middle aged and young adult voters.
In fact, Romney's voting groups are even more conservative than old farts generally.
We had peak Evangelical Right Winger around 2000. It would have faded much faster but was kept alive by the GWOT for a few years longer. It's over. The number of college educated people is sky high, skepticism over superstition is growing, and the Jesus Freaks of the 60s and 70s, who grew up on Sercy, Arkansas A/V bullshit and brought the Reagan bullshit are now wearing Depends or will be shortly.
As soon as we have a few million more hip replacements, perhaps by the next Presidential Election, the country will turn solidly to the left.
The real challenge is to make sure the Left turn gets channeled into productive "Salt of the Earth" issues like minimum wages and taxation, and doesn't get lost in the fruitless disputes (and misuse of the term) about "Privilege" and the Oppression Olympics(tm) ("Transgendered people can't use Womyn's safe space bathrooms, that's just for Womyn born Womyn!" "Why, you bigoted RadFem!" "Chinaman is a derogatory term!" "Like Scotsman? Irishman? Frenchman?" etc.).
What they came out of was chaos and a bitterly divided electorate, 10% red, 30% left, 20% centrist and 40% radical right.
Word.
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Given that much has been made of the shifting demographics and its role in this year's election: That even though a huge percentage of the typical Republican voting demographic voted for them it wasn't enough to overcome the sheer number of minority voters who overwhelmingly support Democrats. A lot has been made out of this because it indicates that Republicans will need to get more people to vote for them beyond those who currently do so.
As indicated by some of the right-leaning comments on this and other sites, its fairly clear that their current base of voters probably isn't going to change. They will keep right on using the same talking points and arguments that are not appealing to minority voters. So this is more a conversation about what the Republican politicians plan on doing.
Its a potentially sticky situation. How to keep their traditional base happy yet at the same time appear to be reaching out to other groups? How do they move forward with a kind of rhetoric that is more inclusive versus exclusive? Lastly, is it possible for them to untangle themselves from the heavy influence of right wing entertainment and if so, would this be a good thing?
The thing is that Republicans will have to change if the hope to remain relevant in the future. So the question is how can they do it, and will they even do so?
#politics