# 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:** 62
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1221 "2013-07-07T19:54:38Z")
And the tent just gets bigger and bigger, they’ve added a whole new…is it “wing”?..for people who hate Muslims, the “Nuke Mecca for Jesus” crowd. So, if you’re a gay guy who hates Sharia law, there’s a place for you! Just ixnay on the abulous-fay. K? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1222 "2013-07-08T04:23:15Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > And So, if you’re a gay guy who hates Sharia law . . . And I suppose they would have some reasons to . . . ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1223 "2013-07-08T04:41:23Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The vision of the foundering fathers is limited government, a case which can only appeal to the average person intellectually. Democrats, on the other hand, get down to brass tacks. This is what we’re going to give you, and someone else will pay for it. Let’s take a look at some quotes from Bernie Sander’s _The Speech_: > [@](#): > > I brought before the Senate legislation which would provide a $250 one-time check to over 50 million seniors and disabled veterans, who for the last two years have not received a COLA in their Social Security benefits. …We won that vote on the floor of the Senate 53 to 45… Because the Republicans filibustered, I needed 60 votes. I could not get 60 votes. I could not get one Republican to provide a $250 check to a disabled veteran trying to get by on $15,000 or $16,000 a year. > [@](#): > > But Mr. Dimon, who made $110 million in the last five years, will get a $1.1 million tax break if this agreement is passed. > [@](#): > > In 2006, [Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack] received a $40 million bonus… Two years after receiving this bonus, Morgan Stanley received some $2 trillion in low interest loans and billions from the Treasury Department. Instead of losing his job, under this agreement, Mr. Mack will be receiving an estimated $926,000 tax break next year. > [@](#): > > Over the past five years, Ken Lewis, the former CEO of Bank of America, received over $147 million in total compensation. In 2008, Bank of America received hundreds of billions in taxpayer-backed loans from the Fed and $45 billion bailout from the Treasury Department. > What will Mr. Lewis receive… he will get a $713,000 tax cut. > [@](#): > > Goldman Sachs received nearly $780 billion. Morgan Stanley received over $2 trillion. Citigroup received $2.4 trillion. Bear Stearns received nearly $1 trillion. And Merrill Lynch received $2.2 million in short term loans from the Fed. > [@](#): > > the Federal Reserve was also bailing out Toyota and Mitsubishi, two Asian carmakers, by purchasing nearly $5 billion worth of their commercial paper > [@](#): > > the Fed extended over $380 billion to the Central Bank of Japan to bail out banks in that country. > [@](#): > > at a time when small businesses in Vermont and all over this country cannot get the loans they need to expand their businesses, I think the American people would find it extremely… maybe amusing that the Fed bailed out the state-owned Bank of Bavaria- not Pennsylvania, not California, but Bavaria- by purchasing over $2.2 billion of its commercial paper. > [@](#): > > the Fed chose to bail out the Arab Banking Corporation based in Bahrain by providing them with over $23 billion in loans with an interest rate as low as one-quarter of 1 percent All this at a time when the top 1 percent make more than the bottom 50 percent, when the GOP is blocking efforts to keep the interest rate on student loans from doubling. It is strange to accuse the Dems of buying off voters by helping people who tend to really need it while all of this is coming out of the party you consider ‘intellectual’. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1224 "2013-07-08T04:45:59Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The vision of the foundering fathers is limited government . . . Foundering indeed. Look all around the world at all the countries where things in general go as well as, or not much worse than, or better than they go in the United States. One thing you won’t find in **any** of them is limited government. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1225 "2013-07-08T05:23:25Z")
Which is why they are all so totally fucked up,\*\* BG\*\*. You’re going to frustrate the poor guy if you keep on being so thick. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1226 "2013-07-08T16:32:16Z")
Okay, I’m a 30-year old (almost 31) white male who makes a decent amount of money. As far as I can tell, **adaher** thinks that I’m exactly the kind of guy the Republicans can pick off starting in 2014. The problems for him are as follows: 1. I’m too young to remember Reagan. Hell, I barely remember George H.W. Bush. So all the mythology and hearing about Reagan has about the same effect on me as the apparent need to re-fight Vietnam in 2004 did. It turns me off and it sure doesn’t make me more interested in listening. 2. The only good times I can remember were the Clinton administration. And the Republicans didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory opposing Clinton. By the time I was old enough to really start paying attention to politics they were impeaching over a blow job and I thought it was stupid. 3. The entire George W. Bush administration was a disaster. I was 18 when it started, 26 when it finished, and while I spent all of it in school it’s not like I wasn’t affected by it. And I loved trying to join the working world as the economy crashed. I’m damn lucky to have still gotten a job then and made it through the recession as well as I have. 4. The current Republicans have nothing to offer me. This would be a big long list, but I don’t feel like typing it all out. But they seem to be hell-bent on being as stupid, petty, mean, and dirty as possible. At this point, the Republicans would have to clone Teddy Roosevelt for me to consider voting Republican again. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1227 "2013-07-08T17:25:15Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > At this point, the Republicans would have to clone Teddy Roosevelt for me to consider voting Republican again. Well, OK. But **you** explain to him about the Canal! ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1228 "2013-07-08T17:57:49Z")
Another high school drama club production of “Arsenic and Old Lace” coming up! ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1229 "2013-07-08T21:47:58Z")
His certain conviction the the Teutonic races are destined to world domination would give me pause. It must be noted that he was firmly determined to be humane and kindly towards subject races. Which was damned white of him. ---
**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:** [July 8, 2013, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1230 "2013-07-08T23:57:27Z")
His attitude was a product of the times. He deserves great credit for, after seeing a presentation on the squalor in lower east side, asking “How can I help?” Yes, his attitude was patronizing. At least, unlike his contemporaries, he tried to help the less fortunate. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1231 "2013-07-09T02:15:01Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > His attitude was a product of the times. He deserves great credit for, after seeing a presentation on the squalor in lower east side, asking “How can I help?” > > Yes, his attitude was patronizing. At least, unlike his contemporaries, he tried to help the less fortunate. And, at least for whites (including Jews, yet), TR was a big fan of the melting-pot idea of American identity – and of Israel Zangwill’s 1908 play [_The Melting Pot._](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Melting_Pot_(play)) ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1232 "2013-07-09T14:42:17Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > … > (Of course I have no faith in anyone even bothering to respond to the above quotes this time around, but here hoping.) > … None so blind, indeed. > > [QUOTE=septimus] > Wow! What? You’re going to tell me it’s wrong? Please do. … Is he going to cite it now (if he ever shows back up)? [/QUOTE] You query Dopers, including myself, _despite that in my post prior to the one you quote, I ask you a question which you never deign to answer._ In its own little way, that impresses with audacity. But I’ll give you the courtesy of an answer whether you give me one or not. My “Wow!” was not intended as a question, nor as detailed refutation. It was just to acknowledge that your post had left me awe-struck. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1233 "2013-07-09T15:58:38Z")
Awestruck or gobsmacked? They’re similar but different. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1234 "2013-07-09T22:35:51Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > You assume that voters maintain their attitudes for life. Democrats used to dominate among the Greatest Generation and won Baby Boomers handily. Those are GOP voters since 1980. > > Now the GOP just has to figure out how to win the 2-3 million young voters who came out for Obama in 2008 but stayed home in 2012. Obama already took the first step for us by disappointing them. Now we just have to close the deal. And you know how you close the deal? By governing well. THe Republicans will win another Presidential election soon, if not 2016 then 2020, that’s just the nature of politics. If they use that opportunity to do a good job, they’ll have no worries. Oh Jeez, I don’t know why we keep on trying to wake you up, your delusions are an example of what is protecting our country from your ilk. Over a million voters pulled the lever for third party candidates other than libertarian. I know I did. I imagine some of them were progressives like myself from solidly blue states making a statement because they feel Obama caved on real health care reform and ended up passing a bill that was basically a Republican plan and failed the country by not enacting real financial reform and not prosecuting “to big to fail” banks. And I imagine an equal number of young people from Blue states just stayed home in order to make the same statement. This doesn’t mean that the sanctimonious money-hungry vampire and LBO monster Thurston Howell Romney the 3rd or any Republican had a snowflake chance in hell of getting my vote by any means short of sticking an high -speed masonry drill up my butt. ---
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1235 "2013-07-10T20:15:32Z")
Ed Kilgore at the Washington Monthly has written a series of articles analyzing the Republican political strategy post-election. Essentially, many Republican leaders have cherry-picked election data to dispute the idea that they need minority voter support to be viable in the future. Here’s a [good example](http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_06/doubling_down_on_the_white_man045491.php): > [@](#): > > [A] lot of them are reading, or are being influenced indirectly by, Sean Trende’s series of analytical columns at RealClearPolitics suggesting that the more obvious route to a Republican majority, at least over the next couple of decades, is to intensify the GOP’s appeal to white voters. > \<…\> > Immediately after the 2012 elections, Trende began arguing that the big story in the Obama/Romney contest was a major drop-off in white voting…This profile of the “missing white voters” of 2012—which is suggestive rather than definitive, since the Perot “coalition” Trende’s talking about arose a full two decades ago—will smell like catnip to those proposing some sort of conservative “populist” makeover for the GOP. And it would also reinforce the idea that being opposed to immigration reform might (a) not really cost the GOP votes they had no realistic chance of winning anyway, and (b) appeal in a positive way to the “missing white voters” who are reflexively nativist. Kilgore also sees the intransigent GOP base as a key component in what amounts to a rationalization for disputing the demographic trend that will likely doom their “missing white voter” strategy in the long run. IMO he [diagnoses the exact problem](http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_07/picking_your_poison045721.php) with the conservative base: > [@](#): > > In all my writings on this subject, I’ve stressed the fact that the contemporary conservative movement—and particularly its increasingly dominant “constitutional conservative” wing—is unusually resistant to changes in its ideology, policies and messaging, for the rather obvious reason that they believe in a fixed, timeless government model located somewhere in the 1920s that reflects not only the Founders’ design but a divine imperative communicated through the Declaration of Independence, natural law, and scripture. So of course they will look high and low for evidence that they don’t have to “change to win,” and even if that pursuit fails, they’ll argue for holding out for a perfect electoral storm to avoid any compromise in their “conservative principles.” That’s why the kind of debate launched by Sean Trende and other empirically based Republican-oriented analysts needs to go deeper than the casual perusal of headlines that reinforce some of the GOP’s worst prejudices. Republicans do need to change to win, and at best have a choice of the kind of changes—even if they look like poison to constitutional conservatives—they must undertake. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1236 "2013-07-10T20:33:22Z")
Oh good, more unskewed polls. Let 'em use all of those they can find. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1237 "2013-07-11T00:38:43Z")
Those votes are so unattainable Bush got 44% of them just 9 years ago and won. ---
**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:** [July 11, 2013, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1238 "2013-07-11T03:09:20Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Those votes are so unattainable Bush got 44% of them just 9 years ago and won. Yeah, and the (GOP-controlled) House is about to call Bush a fucking asshole (since the Senate bill they’re going to reject is essentially the Bush immigration reform plan rebranded). Good luck with that. Hell, Bush himself called them out (subtly) just yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1239 "2013-07-11T03:47:57Z")
Well, of course, subtly. If he totally rags out on them, its going to be awkward talking to Jeb come Thanksgiving. ---
**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:** [July 11, 2013, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/1240 "2013-07-11T04:05:27Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Those votes are so unattainable Bush got 44% of them just 9 years ago and won. Yes, and his party immediately began taking apart everything he actually DID and proposed to GET that 44%. W. was at odds with his party on the immigration issue forever. It was BUSH who got those 44% of Hispanics, not the GOP. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224.md?page=61) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224.md?page=63)