(04-17-2015 11:00 AM)shiftyeagle Wrote: The GOP stance on immigration is mind-numbingly stupid.
It's honestly insane because it politically makes zero sense. George W. Bush won 40% of the Hispanic vote in 2004 and the Republicans have managed to completely squander it away. If the Republicans could win 40% of the Hispanic vote today, they'd be dominant in the electoral college. Instead, the party now needs to win an inside straight of Florida, Ohio and Virginia when all of those states have rapidly rising Hispanic populations and are voting for Republicans in lower numbers.
Once again, we need to separate out mid-term elections (lower turnout elections where simply being the opposite of the party in the White House has long been historically an advantage) from presidential elections. 2014 means very little regarding the electorate in 2016 (just as 2010 meant very little regarding the electorate in 2012).
(04-17-2015 09:54 AM)ECUGrad07 Wrote: The 2014 mid-terms clearly showed that the GOP has "turned people off"... lol. Do you believe the stuff you post? Really?
Yes, one election means that everything is automatically right with the party...
You don't get it. Demographics are changing, and people's views are changing. In another thread, there was some good discussion that compared changing values as people age vs changing values between older and younger generations. It's my belief that the intergenerational changes are going to be greater over the long term than the change you will see within a generation as that generation ages. Values are one issue. The other issue is one based on freedom. While economic freedom is crucial to the long term success and health of our country, your everyday person doesn't connect with that. What they connect with is the freedoms that they can see for themselves - civil liberties. The GOP should be all about freedom. That's what Barry Goldwater envisioned for the GOP, and that is what ultimately catapulted Reagan into the Whitehouse. Reagan built his views off of Goldwater. Today the GOP is seen as being against freedom. That may shock some people to hear it - but look around - that's what people see.
One other thing: the refrain that I've seen from a number of social conservatives stating that they somehow sat home in 2012 because Romney wasn't conservative enough is patently ridiculous. The GOP *cannot* win the White House by simply trying to drive up social conservative turnout. Here's an analysis from just yesterday from the Wall Street Journal (not some liberal rag):
There were more white evangelicals voting in the 2012 election than 2004 and Mitt Romney captured the same percentage of them as George W. Bush (an overwhelming 78%). There were more social conservatives voting in 2012 than ever before and they voted Romney in the exact same way as they voted for Bush! The problem is that it was irrelevant because all other groups essentially turned against the Republicans. Driving up social conservative turnout is a losing strategy for Republicans - there are no "hidden" evangelicals that sat home in 2012. That group is maxed out for the GOP and now providing diminishing returns (as each additional social conservative vote drives away 1 or 2 votes to the other side, resulting in a negative balance).
(04-17-2015 09:54 AM)ECUGrad07 Wrote: The 2014 mid-terms clearly showed that the GOP has "turned people off"... lol. Do you believe the stuff you post? Really?
He's a part-time troll.
Miko is a sports troll. Not so much on politics.
There's nothing wrong with voter ID laws. Showing a photo of yourself is not burdensome. The Republicans need to find a palatable presidential candidate and they need to come up with a fair immigration policy somewhere between no borders at all and building a 50' tall electrified fence with gun turrets.
(This post was last modified: 04-17-2015 06:06 PM by UConn-SMU.)
(04-17-2015 02:51 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote: Just to recap ... you don't build a party doing **** like this. The night this happened, I wrote a $250 check to Gary Johnson, put out Gary Johnson yard signs, and worked quite hard to **** all over Mittens whenever possible.
How does anybody support the GOP with that BS going on?
There are plenty of reasons to not like the DNC either, but more importantly, why do people think Fox will treat Rand any differently? Are they already treating him better than his father? If so, why?
