Bring back the GOP’S big tent

I fully support the Republican ticket locally because it represents budgetary accountability and, in my county, the Democrats do not.

Looking at the mess that the U.S. economy is in, Mitt Romney should have won the presidency and there should have been a Republican landslide in senatorial races.

But this did not happen. Attributing the failure to weak tactics is the easy way out; it ignores the underlying rot in the GOP.

The loss occurred because my party has ceased to be a big tent which accommodates people with a variety of views. Instead, it has literally become a good old boys club for older white men, conservative Southerners and policy extremists. No RINOs or moderates are allowed.

It is hard for Georgians to fully understand the results of the national election. A white male friend told me: “everyone I know voted for Romney.” And, Southern Republicans are already making excuses.

It is a fact that the GOP’s current positions on numerous issues are simply not palatable to a majority of people in this country, versus the much more conservative Georgia and the South.

Right-wing radicalism is why the GOP did not win this election cycle. We would have won by a substantial margin if we had more moderate policies.

For example, women are not going to support increased militarism. Our party has implied we should be much more aggressive in Syria and Iran, becoming involved in more no-win Middle Eastern wars.

Women also believe in family planning, contraception and freedom to choose. Our presidential candidate will not get their support by stating he will defund Planned Parenthood and approve a constitutional amendment banning almost all abortions. And, we will not be able to elect senators who make sexist and unscientific statements that ultimately reflect negatively on our entire party.

Our national leaders must clearly and strongly disavow the views of people like Rep. Paul Broun of Athens, my congressman, who vehemently calls evolution a “lie”. That opinion may be acceptable in rural Georgia, but when it hit the national news not only did he look ridiculous, so did our party and Georgia in general for electing him unopposed.

Voters do not believe that traditional Medicare should be replaced with a voucher that covers most of your premium, leaving seniors at risk. If anything, the public would be more supportive of expanding the existing program to cover everyone as an alternative to Obamacare. They are also skeptical about changing the Medicaid program, which funds many nursing home patients, by making it a block grant to states.

Romney-Ryan said the budget will be miraculously balanced and the deficit will be gone in 20 years or so. Trust us, we have a secret plan for tax reform. The public simply does not have that trust in them.

Latinos are concerned with the shrill rhetoric coming out of the Republican primary. Most want reasonable reforms, not nativist posturing. Realistically, if over 10 million immigrants were deported, as advocated by some in the GOP, it would cause tremendous damage to our economy, especially in agriculture.

Hopefully, my party will finally realize that there is an underlying problem with our vision and direction after this election. However, based on what I have seen the GOP leadership do lately, the tendency will be to blame Romney, saying that he was a bad campaigner and too middle-of-the-road. And that Obama successfully appealed to minority groups “who are not ‘True Americans’ like us.”

If this happens and we will fail to recognize the real culprit — our extreme right-wing policy shift over the last few years — we will continue to lose national elections.