# Will The Republicans ever figure out why they lost? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [December 26, 2012, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224 "2012-12-26T21:33:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/241 "2012-12-28T18:00:59Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > I agree with your basic premise but i don’t see how the Republicans can hope to win without BOTH sides. Ummm . . . havn’t you watched the last two elections? We’ve lost against a very beatable opponant. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/242 "2012-12-28T18:03:56Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Ummm . . . havn’t you watched the last two elections? We’ve lost against a very beatable opponant. Obama wasn’t as beatable as you might like to think - not in 2008 when so many voters were fed up with Bush, and to a lesser extent in 2012 when the economy was recovering. Do you think Republicans would have done better against Obama if they’d told the social conservative faction to go to hell? I don’t. You could ask the same question in reverse, too. Neither of those factions by itself is as large as the Democratic base. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/243 "2012-12-28T18:34:06Z")
Wow, this thread really moved in the last day huh? Sorry, I couldn’t keep up with the crazy. But Republicans, please keep thinking like you think. We really like winning elections 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/244 "2012-12-28T18:36:48Z")
> [@SmilinJack](#): > > Thanks for the info…I might be back sometime when I have something non-controversial to talk about. Can’t you just, you know, talk about controversial things without acting like a jerk? Most of us here manage it most of the time. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/245 "2012-12-28T18:38:25Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Let’s see… Dismissing minorities, condescension, promising us the details of his brilliant insight Real Soon Now[sup]TM[/sup]; I think **Jack** really does know why the Republicans lost. Oh. Oh, you’re good. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/246 "2012-12-28T18:42:37Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I think that the Dem’s in this thread need to stop thinking about “the” Republican Party because there are really two . . . I count at least five: Bizcons, neocons, paleocons, theocons and libertarians. **(SmilinJack** would appear to be a paleocon; they agree with theocons on most points but differ on emphasis.) These groups overlap somewhat, but are distinct, and often don’t see eye-to-eye; but they have managed to keep a coalition together since the 1970s based on a “No Enemies to the Right” strategy. But then came the Tea Party (paelocon/theocon, mostly) . . . ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/247 "2012-12-28T18:46:41Z")
It doesn’t matter if there are 19 of them. As long as they only run one presidential candidate, we have to treat it as a unit. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/248 "2012-12-28T19:07:27Z")
> [@SmilinJack](#): > > Not suprising…since I have just arrived on the disaster scene. > > What is the liberal…conservative ratio on here…? 99 to one? While the liberal-to-conservative ratio here might be substantial, you’ll find that the anti-racist-to-pro-racist ratio to be significantly larger, and the anti-slavery-to-pro-slavery ratio to be huge. And I’m guessing you’ll find that last bit to be true outside this message board as well. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/249 "2012-12-28T19:18:51Z")
> [@](#): > > West, mocking Rasmussen, said: “If you stupid Republicans weren’t so goddamn bigoted you would have won the election!” > > His wife, Betsy, who bears a resemblance to Nancy Reagan, patted him on the back and apologized on his behalf, saying, “I don’t know why he said that. He’s usually not like that.” I think that translates into "I don’t know why he said that. He usually keeps his racist drivel to his close friends and family.” ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/250 "2012-12-28T19:48:26Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > While the liberal-to-conservative ratio here might be substantial, you’ll find that the anti-racist-to-pro-racist ratio to be significantly larger, and the anti-slavery-to-pro-slavery ratio to be huge. > > And I’m guessing you’ll find that last bit to be true outside this message board as well. But the Bible says slavery is okay. That’s why I’ve written my congress-critter and asked her to introduce legislation allowing the stoning of rape victims… just in case they didn’t scream for help. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/251 "2012-12-28T20:02:55Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > Strategically, you’ll see someone who can pull some Hispanic vote or another constituency (to some extent, Palin was supposed to be about getting Hillary voters - but since Palin was vetted so poorly, and the ruse was so transparent, it didn’t work well.) Wait, your response to my saying that the Republicans won’t win until they acknowledge their anti-minority stance is to say that I’m wrong, that the Republicans will win if they acknowledge their anti-minority stance? Yeah, that sure puts me in my place. > [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > The real problem today is that the public is badly undereducated about history and economics. Actually, I find the entire voting public to be totally educated about the Republican Party’s 40 years of history of branding themselves the party of intolerance. I was hoping that you would return from Christmas break and find this thread from your compatriot SmilinJack about Republican bigotry so that you could give me another lecture about how wrong I am on this subject. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/252 "2012-12-28T20:07:29Z")
> [@Katriona](#): > > I think most of them are content to live in their bubble: > > [A Dispatch From the 'National Review's Post-Election Cruise -- New York Magazine - Nymag](http://nymag.com/news/features/republican-caribbean-cruise-2012-12/) What I find fascinating about that article is the picture it paints of the _National Review_ trying its hardest to get those people to poke their heads out of the bubble. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/253 "2012-12-28T20:37:38Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Looks like he’s de-banned…for the moment. Somehow I think we’re going to still be left hanging on his great revelation though… I think it was if we bring back slavery, The White Working Class can vote while the Negroes are happily locked up. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/254 "2012-12-28T20:59:30Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I count at least five: Bizcons, neocons, paleocons, theocons and libertarians. **(SmilinJack** would appear to be a paleocon; they agree with theocons on most points but differ on emphasis.) These groups overlap somewhat, but are distinct, and often don’t see eye-to-eye; but they have managed to keep a coalition together since the 1970s based on a “No Enemies to the Right” strategy. But then came the Tea Party (paelocon/theocon, mostly) . . . Yes; more and more the Republicans are resembling a phrase I used to hear used about the Democrats; a “circular firing squad”. Most of the factions have recently been waking up to the fact that they haven’t been getting what they want out of the Republicans all these years, and are demanding that things be done their way. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/255 "2012-12-28T21:01:49Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Most of the factions have recently been waking up to the fact that they haven’t been getting what they want out of the Republicans all these years, and are demanding that things be done their way. That’s more or less what the Tea Party is. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/256 "2012-12-28T21:24:37Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > That’s more or less what the Tea Party is. Yes. The Republicans have spent decades feeding the social conservatives, theocrats and racists the rhetoric they wanted to hear and taking their votes, while catering almost exclusively to the plutocrats. Now after all these years they appear to have woken up to this. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/257 "2012-12-28T21:33:20Z")
Rather like a radical lefty who votes for the Democrat, even as the leadership is rotten with _menshevik_, “business-friendly”, Clintonista, Republican Lite sellouts? Because it is the best choice one can make, given the circumstances? They simply operated on a false premise, that the energy shown by the Tea Party movement was a demographic miracle, that suddenly they were the dominant bloc of voters. Easy enough, when one believes to a certainty that America is a center-right country, and the Dems only win because they cheat. They mistook a sudden burst in their energy with a sudden change in demographics. Seeing that they had created new energy, they forgot that they didn’t make new people. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/258 "2012-12-28T21:37:09Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Rather like a radical lefty who votes for the Democrat, even as the leadership is rotten with _menshevik_, “business-friendly”, Clintonista, Republican Lite sellouts? Because it is the best choice one can make, given the circumstances? > > They simply operated on a false premise, that the energy shown by the Tea Party movement was a demographic miracle, that suddenly they were the dominant bloc of voters. Easy enough, when one believes to a certainty that America is a center-right country, and the Dems only win because they cheat. They mistook a sudden burst in their energy with a sudden change in demographics. Seeing that they had created new energy, they forgot that they didn’t make new people. good post. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/259 "2012-12-28T21:39:49Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Most of the factions have recently been waking up to the fact that they haven’t been getting what they want out of the Republicans all these years, and are demanding that things be done their way. > [@Marley23](#): > > That’s more or less what the Tea Party is. Not quite. Remember that the TEA Party stands for “Taxed Enough Already”. Republicans and Democrats fave been cutting taxes for years. The Tea Party have been getting exactly what they want and they’re still pissed off. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/260 "2012-12-28T21:56:06Z")
The “Tea Party” isn’t just about taxes. And they haven’t been getting what they want in regards to taxes; I don’t think any tax cut would be enough for them. The Right in general is heavily infested with people for whom there’s no such thing as “enough”; they always want lower taxes, more money, a bigger military, more power. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224.md?page=14)