# 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:** 52
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1021 "2013-07-02T21:49:00Z")
They heard that from Democrats. Democrats are the ones who talk about race and try to divide us by race. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1022 "2013-07-02T21:54:15Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > They heard that from Democrats. Democrats are the ones who talk about race and try to divide us by race. That’s what should happen when voters are informed. ---
**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:** [July 2, 2013, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1023 "2013-07-02T22:03:15Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > They heard that from Democrats. Democrats are the ones who talk about race and try to divide us by race. Um, no. Do you listen to _anything_ Republican politicians say? Do you think that when the GOP talk about the 47%, the “welfare queens”, the “lazy freeloaders”, and the “illegals” who obviously vote Democratic, there exists anyone who doesn’t understand that they mean minorities and the poor (which overlap significantly anyway)? Do you think it’s the Democratic voters making the “It’s called the WHITE House for a reason” jokes, and the witch doctor signs, and the “Don’t Re-Nig” bumper stickers? Do you, in short, live on another planet in a cave with your fingers in your ears? ---
**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:** [July 2, 2013, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1024 "2013-07-02T22:05:28Z")
Again, the argument that the worst kind of racism is the kind that points out that racism exists. They’ve been saying do often that they’ve convinced themselves that it’s true. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1025 "2013-07-02T22:07:18Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > They heard that from Democrats. Democrats are the ones who talk about race and try to divide us by race. From 2007. [New York Times.](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/opinion/19krugman.html?_r=0) > [@](#): > > More than 40 years have passed since the Voting Rights Act, which Reagan described in 1980 as “humiliating to the South.” Yet Southern white voting behavior remains distinctive. Democrats decisively won the popular vote in last year’s House elections, but Southern whites voted Republican by almost two to one. > The G.O.P.’s own leaders admit that the great Southern white shift was the result of a deliberate political strategy. “Some Republicans gave up on winning the African-American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization.” So declared Ken Mehlman, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, speaking in 2005. > [@](#): > > “Reagan paralleled Nixon’s success in constructing a politics and a strategy of governing that attacked policies targeted toward blacks and other minorities without reference to race — a conservative politics that had the effect of polarizing the electorate along racial lines.” > Thus, Reagan repeatedly told the bogus story of the Cadillac-driving welfare queen — a gross exaggeration of a minor case of welfare fraud. He never mentioned the woman’s race, but he didn’t have to. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1026 "2013-07-02T22:09:19Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > They heard that from Democrats. Democrats are the ones who talk about race and try to divide us by race. I think it’s fine to talk about race rather than to act like we live in a color-blind society. We don’t. As for the other part of this comment, Gyrate’s post asks you the pertinent questions. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1027 "2013-07-02T22:11:38Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The data shows both minorities and whites voting more and more as a bloc. Your assumption is that minorities will continue to vote as a bloc while whites remain a swing group with a GOP lean. > > And if Democrats aren’t alienating whites, why are whites not supporting the Democrats? Will Democrats ever figure out why they are losing the white vote by a large margin? You’re in a sad state indeed if [you’re taking your strategies/talking points](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/30/republicans-white-vote_n_3361687.html) from [the Center for Immigration Studies](http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Center_For_Immigration_Studies). ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1028 "2013-07-02T22:17:40Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > They heard that from Democrats. Democrats are the ones who talk about race and try to divide us by race. Oh really? [Rebecca Forest, founder of the Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas](http://www.txdemocrats.org/2011/06/13/republicans-finally-say-what-they-really-think-of-hispanics-tea-party-leader-%E2%80%9Cthe-problem-is-these-hispanic-legislators%E2%80%9D/) If you want to know why we can’t pass legislation in Texas it’s because we have 37, no 36, Hispanics in the Legislature. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1029 "2013-07-02T22:21:11Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > They heard that from Democrats. Democrats are the ones who talk about race and try to divide us by race. This can’t be the first time in your life you’ve ever heard of Lee Atwater and dog whistle politics, can it? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1030 "2013-07-02T22:22:11Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > Oh really? > > [Rebecca Forest, founder of the Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas](http://www.txdemocrats.org/2011/06/13/republicans-finally-say-what-they-really-think-of-hispanics-tea-party-leader-%E2%80%9Cthe-problem-is-these-hispanic-legislators%E2%80%9D/) If you want to know why we can’t pass legislation in Texas it’s because we have 37, no 36, Hispanics in the Legislature. > [@](#): > > So that’s, umm, part of our problem and we need to change those numbers. Umm, we need to do something about that in fact, during the debate on “sanctuary cities,” several Hispanic legislators testified that their grandparents and their parents were migrant workers who came over here to work and that THEY even worked in the fields. And some of them even admitted that they had been here illegally and that they came illegally. So the problem is these Hispanic legislators…is that it’s too close to them and they, umm… simply cannot vote their conscience correctly. How do you know that is not what they are doing, based on their own experience, Ms. Forest? ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1031 "2013-07-02T22:23:01Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > They heard that from Democrats. Democrats are the ones who talk about race and try to divide us by race. Oh, really? [Republican Party doesn’t want black people to vote](http://americablog.com/2013/06/republican-party-doesnt-want-black-people-to-vote-per-texas-tea-party-leader.html) ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1032 "2013-07-02T22:29:38Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > They heard that from Democrats. Democrats are the ones who talk about race and try to divide us by race. Oh, really? [Shit Republicans Say About Black People](http://jezebel.com/5876956/shit-republicans-say-about-black-people) > [@](#): > > At Monday’s 352nd Republican presidential debate, the remaining candidates for the GOP Presidential nomination tackled the tough issues, like whether or not felons should be allowed to vote and what in the sam hill is going on with black people being poor all the time. As they veered between treating moderator Juan Williams like he was an acceptable substitute for the ire they’d like to direct at President Obama and talking like a civics paper written by a drunk guy who only watches Fox News, I started thinking: For being a bunch of rich white folk, Republican politicians sure do say a lot of shit about black people. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1033 "2013-07-02T22:49:49Z")
> [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](#): > > This can’t be the first time in your life you’ve ever heard of Lee Atwater and dog whistle politics, can it? [Here:](http://www.thenation.com/article/170841/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy#axzz2XvnVyBqy) > [@](#): > > You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.” But give him credit, Atwater did, literally, repent on his deathbed. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1034 "2013-07-02T22:55:04Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > [Here:](http://www.thenation.com/article/170841/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy#axzz2XvnVyBqy) > But give him credit, Atwater did, literally, repent on his deathbed. And out went the genie. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1035 "2013-07-02T23:11:48Z")
You guys spend all this effort continuously showing Adaher how wrong he is about absolutely every thing he holds dear and not one iota of it is going to stick. Which is basically the answer we’ve been looking for the last 21 pages. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1036 "2013-07-02T23:27:25Z")
> [@](#): > > They are still the same small government party they were 50 years ago. Nonsense and taradiddle. Fifty years ago the GOP could accomodate people like Mayor Lindsey of NYC and Sen. Charles Percy of Illinois. It could accomodate people sympathetic to environmentalism like H. Joel Deckard, who represented Indiana’s Eighth District from 1979 to 1983. Today those people would be damned as RINOs if not run out of the party. Nixon may have been a villain, but his administration supported creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and a decent health care plan. If Nixon came back from the grave he wpuld be damned as a Socialist by the Tea Party. The Republicans have changed and not for the better, adaher. ---
**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:** [July 3, 2013, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1037 "2013-07-03T01:00:12Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > You guys spend all this effort continuously showing Adaher how wrong he is about absolutely every thing he holds dear and not one iota of it is going to stick. Which is basically the answer we’ve been looking for the last 21 pages. Four more years. Of this nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1038 "2013-07-03T01:05:18Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Four more years. Of this nonsense. And then? ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1039 "2013-07-03T01:08:48Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > And then? No ‘And Then’! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1040 "2013-07-03T01:28:01Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Four more years. Of this nonsense. That is mighty optimistic of you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224.md?page=51) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224.md?page=53)