# 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:** 38
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2013, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/741 "2013-06-23T20:32:28Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Let’s start here because the answer to this can take in all the other issues. Bravo! Bravo! Seriously excellent post. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2013, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/742 "2013-06-23T20:43:15Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > Bravo! Bravo! > > Seriously excellent post. Seconded- Exapno’s explanation (post #720) is better than mine. I’ll defer to him. ---
**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:** [June 23, 2013, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/743 "2013-06-23T23:01:07Z")
[The 1968 Presidential Election](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1968#Election) > [@](#): > > The election on November 5, 1968, proved to be extremely close, and it was not until the following morning that the television news networks were able to call Nixon the winner. The key states proved to be California, Ohio, and Illinois, all of which Nixon won by three percentage points or less. Had Humphrey carried all three of these states, he would have won the election. Had Humphrey carried any two of them, or California alone, George Wallace would have succeeded in his aim of preventing an electoral college majority for any candidate, and the decision would have been given to the House of Representatives, at the time controlled by the Democratic Party. Nixon won the popular vote with a plurality of 512,000 votes, or a victory margin of about one percentage point. In the electoral college Nixon’s victory was larger, as he carried 32 states with 301 electoral votes, to Humphrey’s 13 states and 191 electoral votes and Wallace’s five states and 46 electoral votes. … > > Nixon’s victory is often considered a realigning election in American politics. … The election began a long-term realignment in Democratic Party support, especially in the South. Nationwide, the bitter splits over civil rights, the new left, the Vietnam War, and other “culture wars” were slow to heal. It was no longer automatic for all white Southerners to vote Democratic for president, as Republicans made major gains in suburban areas and areas filled with Northern migrants. The rural Democratic “courthouse cliques” in the South lost power. While Democrats controlled local and state politics in the South, Republicans usually won the presidential vote. In 1968 Humphrey won less than 10% of the white Southern vote, with 2/3 of his vote in the region coming from blacks, who now were voting in full strength. The Civil Rights Act made Wallace possible. Offered a frankly racist alternative to the direction the modern national Democratic party was heading, a terrifying percentage of the old South chose it. They might have again in the [1972 election](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1972): > [@](#): > > Alabama Governor George Wallace, an anti-integrationist, did well in the South (he won every county in the Florida primary) and in the North among alienated and dissatisfied voters. What might have become a forceful campaign was cut short when Wallace was shot in an assassination attempt by Arthur Bremer on May 15. Wallace was struck by four bullets and left paralyzed. The day after the assassination attempt, Wallace won the Michigan and Maryland primaries, but the shooting effectively ended his campaign. He ran as a Democrat. When he left the campaign the South had another choice. They chose Nixon. Obviously, race was not the sole reason for this, nor was racism limited to the South. It mattered greatly, though, that George Wallace, the national face of American racism, was considered to be the viable alternative to the sitting president. No wonder that the Southern strategy was developed after the 68 election. This was an exploitable issue, and it was exploited well. The Democrats were smart to nominate a Southern governor in 1976, but the election was about Watergate and is too much of an anomaly to use as an exemplar of voting patterns. All the elections from 1964 through 1976 are weird in one way or another. The winners were totally obvious in three of the four yet they had little predictive ability about future elections. ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/744 "2013-06-24T15:08:03Z")
[removed copyrighted material posted without attribution ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/745 "2013-06-24T17:37:24Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > That’s kinda the point, when you control academia, you can twist the truth and get away with it. That’s why fascism is supposedly “right-wing”, because we just couldn’t have the left be solely responsible for the terrors of the 20th century. As if Hitler and Mussolini were small government, free market advocates. Well, take a lesson from that: RW != libertarian. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/746 "2013-06-25T00:37:13Z")
**Crucible** , we expect people to write their own posts, not cut and paste material written by someone else and use it without attribution. Don’t do this again. **twickster** , Elections moderator ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/747 "2013-06-25T01:18:07Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > The statement “If blacks would only try harder they could be just as well off as whites” is not “anti-Black”. Yes, it is. Think about it. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/748 "2013-06-25T01:39:52Z")
Well, now, just a second there, **NeuronMuncher**! Something wrong with a sternly affectionate lecture, stop being so lazy, that sort of thing? Kind of thing you might get from your uncle, if your uncle is a total dick. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/749 "2013-06-25T09:25:13Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Yes, it is. Think about it. Maybe if he just tried harder to think about it…? ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/750 "2013-06-25T11:12:49Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > **Crucible** , we expect people to write their own posts, not cut and paste material written by someone else and use it without attribution. > > Don’t do this again. > > **twickster** , Elections moderator the reporter’s name was right at the bottom. or Blog, or whatever. The article was just a detail of the extremes the Republicans are engaging in in North Carolina, with hundreds now being arrested every Monday in Raleigh as they protest the actions of the right wingers. When I use someone else’s work, I attribute, I don’t just rephrase and claim I am the brilliant one. ---
**Author:** ![seeker741](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@seeker741](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seeker741)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/751 "2013-06-25T12:58:11Z")
get all those dead republicans to vote, Which is very common for Democrats to do. Stop voter fraud which the Dems use all the time, voter id must be enforced! If I am stopped driving I just can’t tell the cop, gee I don’t need a licence or any ID. try it see how that works out for ya! Although I support privacy rights I think we need a national drivers licence or national id card. I know nobody wants to have their social security number revealed or their address or what ever…,gee have you ever applied for school, drivers licence, loan, credit card, job application, filed your taxes??? Your name and identity are public record go to the court house and see, or see who has requested your credit file…so providing ID is not a privacy issue or means to deny voting it is a duty of every legal resident to let the voter officals you are legal to vote in an American election, then maybe all those double or triple votes by Dems will disappear! Plus we need to educate the Young sheep in society, that free handouts and giving a free lunch to every tom dick and hairy and illegal or voting for someone just becasue it is a fad or everyone else on campus is doing it, is not how this country became great. Once these clueless leftist students figure out the democrats are making them dependent, then maybe we will have a swing back to the “light” and away from the “dark side”! Start making it mandatory to teach citizenship in elementary school again, like when this country was strong and working and prospering. It should be mandatory to teach kids that in order for a country and its people to thrive they must work and build on the foundations of our forefathers, not destroy what was and can be a great country again, by sucking at the teat of the nanny city, state or federal government!:smack: ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/752 "2013-06-25T13:06:10Z")
> [@seeker741](#): > > get all those dead republicans to vote, Which is very common for Democrats to do. > Stop voter fraud which the Dems use all the time, voter id must be enforced! If I am stopped driving I just can’t tell the cop, gee I don’t need a licence or any ID. See how that works out for ya! Although I support privacy rights I think we need a national drivers licence or national id card. > I know nobody wants to have their social security number revealed or their address or what ever…,gee have you ever applied for school, drivers licence, loan, credit card, job application, filed your taxes??? Your name and identity are public record go to the court house and see, or see who has requested your credit file…so providing ID is not a privacy issue or means to deny voting it is a duty of every legal resident to let the voter officals you are legal to vote in an American election, then maybe all those double or triple votes by Dems will disappear! > Plus we need to educate the Young sheep in society, that free handouts and giving a free lunch to every tom dick and hairy and illegal or voting for someone just becasue it is a fad or everyone else on campus is doing it, is not how this country became great. Once these clueless leftist students figure out the democrats are making them dependent, then maybe we will have a swing back to the “light” and away from the “dark side”! > Start making it mandatory to teach citizenship in elementary school, again when this country was strong and working and prospering. It should be mandatory to teach kids that in order for a country and its people to thrive they must work and build on the foundations of our forefathers, not destroy what was and can be a gret country again, by sucking at the teat of the nanny city, state or federal government!:smack: Good heavens. First of all, the number of people impersonating voters or voting on behalf of the dead is miniscule. You don’t fix a problem of a handful of fraudulent votes by preventing hundreds of thousands of legitimate ones. There simply is no significant voter fraud problem, Republicans go into their Chicken Little act so they can pass measures aimed at suppressing Democratic vote. Yes, you need to have a license to drive, yet you have no constitutional right to do so. You do have a constitutional right to vote, so putting barriers to the polls so as to disenfranchise one party’s voters is contrary to democratic principles. Civics and history have always been taught in school, what are you getting upset about? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/753 "2013-06-25T13:07:38Z")
> [@seeker741](#): > > get all those dead republicans to vote, Which is very common for Democrats to do. Cite? > [@](#): > > Stop voter fraud which the Dems use all the time Actually, most of the fraud identified in the 2012 election was perpetuated by Republicans. > [@](#): > > voter id must be enforced! If I am stopped driving I just can’t tell the cop, gee I don’t need a licence or any ID. See how that works out for ya! Although I support privacy rights I think we need a national drivers licence or national id card. I’m sure that would do a wonderful job of stopping the endemic voter fraud that isn’t actually happening. And does nothing about fraud in absentee ballots either - but of course, absentee voters favor the GOP, so that’s okay. > [@](#): > > ``` > I know nobody wants to have their social security number revealed or their address or what ever.....,gee have you ever applied for school, drivers licence, loan, credit card, job application, filed your taxes??? Your name and identity are public record go to the court house and see, or see who has requested your credit file.....so providing ID is not a privacy issue or means to deny voting it is a duty of every legal resident to let the voter officals you are legal to vote in an American election, then maybe all those double or triple votes by Dems will disappear! > > ``` You mean the non-existent ones? > [@](#): > > Plus we need to educate the Young sheep in society, that free handouts and giving a free lunch to every tom dick and hairy and illegal or voting for someone just becasue it is a fad or everyone else on campus is doing it, is not how this country became great. Once these clueless leftist students figure out the democrats are making them dependent, then maybe we will have a swing back to the “light” and away from the “dark side”! > Start making it mandatory to teach citizenship in elementary school, again when this country was strong and working and prospering. It should be mandatory to teach kids that in order for a country and its people to thrive they must work and build on the foundations of our forefathers, not destroy what was and can be a gret country again, by sucking at the teat of the nanny city, state or federal government!:smack: Seriously, dude (or dudette), we’ve been over all these points ad nauseum on this board. The idea that all “real hard-working Americans” all vote Republican and all the lazy freeloaders, criminals, mindless sheep, fraudsters and illegal immigrants vote Democrat is not actually borne out by any data. Accept it: your guy lost because the majority of Americans voted for the other guy. Fair and square. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/754 "2013-06-25T14:42:35Z")
> [@seeker741](#): > > get all those dead republicans to vote, Which is very common for Democrats to do. > Stop voter fraud which the Dems use all the time, voter id must be enforced! If I am stopped driving I just can’t tell the cop, gee I don’t need a licence or any ID. try it see how that works out for ya! Although I support privacy rights I think we need a national drivers licence or national id card. > I know nobody wants to have their social security number revealed or their address or what ever…,gee have you ever applied for school, drivers licence, loan, credit card, job application, filed your taxes??? Your name and identity are public record go to the court house and see, or see who has requested your credit file…so providing ID is not a privacy issue or means to deny voting it is a duty of every legal resident to let the voter officals you are legal to vote in an American election, then maybe all those double or triple votes by Dems will disappear! > Plus we need to educate the Young sheep in society, that free handouts and giving a free lunch to every tom dick and hairy and illegal or voting for someone just becasue it is a fad or everyone else on campus is doing it, is not how this country became great. Once these clueless leftist students figure out the democrats are making them dependent, then maybe we will have a swing back to the “light” and away from the “dark side”! > Start making it mandatory to teach citizenship in elementary school again, like when this country was strong and working and prospering. It should be mandatory to teach kids that in order for a country and its people to thrive they must work and build on the foundations of our forefathers, not destroy what was and can be a great country again, by sucking at the teat of the nanny city, state or federal government!:smack: There is one person on this forum that agrees with maybe half of what you say. His name is **Bricker** , and he is constantly wrong. There has been an extensive thread on the issue. The fact is that the voter fraud cases we’ve been able to establish actually existing are so minuscule and the number of people eligible to vote that don’t own ID so massive, that enforcing voter ID laws would actually lead to _more_ distortion in the vote, rather than less. But why am I bothering? This post is so snooker loopy that Sonny would look at it and seriously consider laying off the puffs. ---
**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:** [June 25, 2013, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/755 "2013-06-25T14:42:44Z")
> [@crucible](#): > > the reporter’s name was right at the bottom. or Blog, or whatever. The article was just a detail of the extremes the Republicans are engaging in in North Carolina, with hundreds now being arrested every Monday in Raleigh as they protest the actions of the right wingers. > > When I use someone else’s work, I attribute, I don’t just rephrase and claim I am the brilliant one. The Board is properly concerned about copyright and enforces it rigorously. Copying an entire article is a violation of the writer’s copyright. It doesn’t matter in the least if you attribute it. Nor was it clear from the way you pasted it that it wasn’t your work or that the name on the bottom was the writer or that you hadn’t just copied something that you had written elsewhere. You posted it exactly as if it were yours. The proper form here is to give a link to the original. You can excerpt a small portion that makes your point and put it into a quote box (or just between quote marks). That’s considered Fair Use. There is no precise amount that constitutes the difference between Fair Use and a violation; just be reasonable about it. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/756 "2013-06-25T14:49:45Z")
> [@seeker741](#): > > get all those dead republicans to vote, Which is very common for Democrats to do. Not even you believe that. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/757 "2013-06-25T14:54:42Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Not even you believe that. I don’t know about that - it’s an understandable syllogism: 1. The other guy won. 2. The majority of right-thinking, hard-working honest people agree with me and not him. 3. Therefore the other guy must have cheated. QED! ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/758 "2013-06-25T16:08:42Z")
I’m just wondering how this **seeker** person managed to fly under the radar here for three years with that kind of head of completely loony steam built up. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/759 "2013-06-25T16:24:15Z")
> [@seeker741](#): > > get all those dead republicans to vote, Which is very common for Democrats to do. > Stop voter fraud which the Dems use all the time, voter id must be enforced! If I am stopped driving I just can’t tell the cop, gee I don’t need a licence or any ID. try it see how that works out for ya! Although I support privacy rights I think we need a national drivers licence or national id card. > I know nobody wants to have their social security number revealed or their address or what ever…,gee have you ever applied for school, drivers licence, loan, credit card, job application, filed your taxes??? Your name and identity are public record go to the court house and see, or see who has requested your credit file…so providing ID is not a privacy issue or means to deny voting it is a duty of every legal resident to let the voter officals you are legal to vote in an American election, then maybe all those double or triple votes by Dems will disappear! > Plus we need to educate the Young sheep in society, that free handouts and giving a free lunch to every tom dick and hairy and illegal or voting for someone just becasue it is a fad or everyone else on campus is doing it, is not how this country became great. Once these clueless leftist students figure out the democrats are making them dependent, then maybe we will have a swing back to the “light” and away from the “dark side”! > Start making it mandatory to teach citizenship in elementary school again, like when this country was strong and working and prospering. It should be mandatory to teach kids that in order for a country and its people to thrive they must work and build on the foundations of our forefathers, not destroy what was and can be a great country again, by sucking at the teat of the nanny city, state or federal government!:smack: There you are. The future of the Republican party. This is the GOP’s plans for winning elections. Find a lot of people like seeker. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/760 "2013-06-25T16:30:37Z")
Who name their sons “Hairy”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224.md?page=37) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224.md?page=39)