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I don't think men particularly liked [Hillary] as a group...you have a point but men are less important than ever in terms of national politics.
I think all the buzz on how to 'reform' the Republican party is overblown. Not that it doesn't need reform - I've never voted Republican, probably never will - but the notion that 2012 represented a catastrophic defeat for the party is ridiculous.
First of all, percentage wise, they didn't lose by that much. I saw a popular vote percentage of 51% vs. 47% in the last presidential election. Four percentage points isn't that much, certainly not an insurmountable lead.
Second of all, the two-party system, combined with the arrogance and lust for power that inundates DC, will almost certainly prompt Democrats to "step in it". With winner-take-all, plurality elections, all that matters is scoring that slimmest majority come election time. In practical terms, what that means is the winner of any election has every incentive to push their agenda right up to that point where they risk losing a slim advantage. Add in the Democrats who might be more interested in their own agenda than the well-being of the party, and it's almost certain that the Democrats in power will piss off enough people to narrow that 4% margin.
To put it another way, Democrats won't be able to resist the temptation to push for every agenda item on their wishlist - even knowing it will alienate many voters. All the Republicans really have to do to position themselves for a comeback is not get any worse. That may be a challenge, in and of itself, but I just don't see how a major reshaping of the party is necessarily. And I say that with regret, because I'd love to see it happen.
Republicans want to end perception as 'stuffy old men'
Posted 3/18 by
CNN Political Unit
Washington (CNN) – The beleaguered Republican Party put into writing Monday what many of its top strategists and leaders have been saying since last year's election losses: The GOP is too old, too white, and too insular to win national contests.
Is it even possible to reform the GOP now? I was hoping it would collapse and a Libertarian Party assume its place, but we haven't got that yet.
I was a lifelong Republican until 2006, when totally disgusted with the losing forever war and fooled by the antiwar stance of the Dems, I reregistered Independent.
I'm not going back to the GOP because they have become essentially anti-woman in almost every stance.
--women hate war, but Republicans never saw a war they didn't want to charge right into.
--women hate all these guns and school shootings, but Republicans love guns and the NRA mailing list is equivalent to the GOP.
--woman hate sex marauders like Herman Cain but Republican (men) will defend him to the death as a great presidential candidate!
--women hate rape but at least two candidates for the Senate actually spoke in favor of rape!! Simply incredible. Both lost, of course.
--most women want abortion freedoms protected for all women. Republican men, of course, want control, control, control over women's reproduction, though it's none of their business.
--women have have been building birth control freedoms since 1929, but a major presidential candidate (Santorum) came out AGAINST birth control! Incredible.
--most women think it's an insult for a boob bimbo to be picked as a VP candidate: Hello, Sarah Palin!
--the cruelties and crimes of Mormons against women and young girls are well-known and there are many tell-all books by "sister wives" that women read. So who did the Republicans pick to run for president?? You guessed it: a Mormon!
As there are substantially more women than men in the population, as women vote disporportionately to our already greater proportion, and since we achieve much lower unemployment and have 55% of all BA degrees and 60% of all masters degrees awarded, I question how much political sense it really makes for the Republican Party to be so inimical toward women.
I don't see how the GOP can come back. They've lost the women, and there are more women voters than the other kind, so that's that. Time for a new party.
Anyone else think the GOP can't recover now? Too old, too white, too .....male?
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I don't think men particularly liked [Hillary] as a group...you have a point but men are less important than ever in terms of national politics.
That's the thing. The stats are all there and very obvious. It's one of the reasons I keep tearing my hair at the strange behavior of the GOP --- a war on women isn't politically practical if there are more women voters! And there are.
I think all the buzz on how to 'reform' the Republican party is overblown. Not that it doesn't need reform - I've never voted Republican, probably never will - but the notion that 2012 represented a catastrophic defeat for the party is ridiculous.
First of all, percentage wise, they didn't lose by that much. I saw a popular vote percentage of 51% vs. 47% in the last presidential election. Four percentage points isn't that much, certainly not an insurmountable lead.
Second of all, the two-party system, combined with the arrogance and lust for power that inundates DC, will almost certainly prompt Democrats to "step in it". With winner-take-all, plurality elections, all that matters is scoring that slimmest majority come election time. In practical terms, what that means is the winner of any election has every incentive to push their agenda right up to that point where they risk losing a slim advantage. Add in the Democrats who might be more interested in their own agenda than the well-being of the party, and it's almost certain that the Democrats in power will piss off enough people to narrow that 4% margin.
To put it another way, Democrats won't be able to resist the temptation to push for every agenda item on their wishlist - even knowing it will alienate many voters. All the Republicans really have to do to position themselves for a comeback is not get any worse. That may be a challenge, in and of itself, but I just don't see how a major reshaping of the party is necessarily. And I say that with regret, because I'd love to see it happen.
The idea that any party is dead or close is absolutely nuts. The proof is in the democrats (who were certainly never again going to have any real political power) just a short decade ago. Politics is a pendulum.
The idea that any party is dead or close is absolutely nuts. The proof is in the democrats (who were certainly never again going to have any real political power) just a short decade ago. Politics is a pendulum.
True. The thing is, though, that the pendulum CAN swing to one side for a long time, and has. Democrats have controlled Congress for decades at a time. That's the greatest danger for the GOP, surely? That they'll become a minority party for 20 years or more.
I can remember when the GOP didn't talk about nasty things. Homosexuality, abortion, men arming themselves to the teeth with assault rifles, subjects like that were unaddressed by the main parties as beneath discussion, personal crime and tragedy that we didn't talk about on a national stage.
That worked for me; I was a Republican all those years and decades. Now it's just meddle, meddle, meddle in people's lives, and what's to like? Here's Rush Limbaugh slanders a pretty young woman for three days with pornographic slurs on national radio supposedly for the benefit of the Republican Party, and I'm supposed to belong to a party as mean and disgusting as all THAT?
No way.
The idea that any party is dead or close is absolutely nuts. The proof is in the democrats (who were certainly never again going to have any real political power) just a short decade ago. Politics is a pendulum.
True. The thing is, though, that the pendulum CAN swing to one side for a long time, and has. Democrats have controlled Congress for decades at a time. That's the greatest danger for the GOP, surely? That they'll become a minority party for 20 years or more.
I can remember when the GOP didn't talk about nasty things. Homosexuality, abortion, men arming themselves to the teeth with assault rifles, subjects like that were unaddressed by the main parties as beneath discussion, personal crime and tragedy that we didn't talk about on a national stage.
That worked for me; I was a Republican all those years and decades. Now it's just meddle, meddle, meddle in people's lives, and what's to like? Here's Rush Limbaugh slanders a pretty young woman for three days with pornographic slurs on national radio supposedly for the benefit of the Republican Party, and I'm supposed to belong to a party as mean and disgusting as all THAT?
No way.
I don't see the republicans reforming. To do so means that they have to admit that their product is flawed, and republicans are not good at doing that. Instead, I see them searching the country for a populast, who can become a sort of Huey Long demogod. They thought they had one for about 15 minutes, with Ron Paul, but he turned out to be a nut. Then they turned to Palin, who turned out to be ignorant. My best guess is that they are going to find somebody named John Galt, and nominate him. Thank God Nixon is dead, or they would prop him up and run him again!
