... and send a warning to GOP
To succeed nationally, party needs to become more inclusive
Four years ago, when Republicans were nursing their wounds after losing the White House, we offered them three pieces of unsolicited advice: focus on fiscal responsibility; stop being so angry about everything; and find ways to expand the party’s appeal to people of color and young voters.
Today, as the GOP regroups after another failed run at the White House and another failed attempt to take control of the Senate, we could say pretty much the same thing. The temptation, of course, will be to blame Mitt Romney for being a flawed candidate, for not being conservative enough, or both. But if Republicans want to rebound in future national elections, they would be well advised to focus elsewhere.
The party has many things going for it, including a strong presence in the heartland and a farm team of innovative governors. As 2010 showed, the party is also perfectly capable of engineering impressive sweeps inHouse elections. But it is losing its ability to win presidential elections thanks to its unwillingness to face the changing demographics of the electorate, and has now lost the Senate in consecutive elections by nominating fringe candidates over moderates.
To reverse the presidential trend, Republicans will need to get beyond their strident positions on immigration. Exit polls showed Romney won just 30% of Latino voters, down from the 44% George W. Bush pulled in 2004.
They may also need to recalibrate their positions on reproductive issues such as birth control and Planned Parenthood, without abandoning their principles about abortion. Women made up 53% of the vote and broke to Obama by a 10-point margin. In the Senate, Republican candidates who made clumsy remarks about rape and abortion cost the GOP sure-win seats in Indiana and Missouri.
Most important, Republicans have to define themselves in ways that go beyond merely opposing Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., cynically summed up the situation when he declared in 2010 that his top priority was in seeing Obama defeated.
By leading the way to a deficitreduction deal with Obama, Republicans could demonstrate their commitment to fiscal responsibility while smoothing some rough edges. First, though, they will have to get beyond their reflexive antitax orthodoxy, with members signing pledges to purity-enforcement groups and vowing not to accept even a 10-to-1 ratio of spending cuts to tax increases.
With some simple pragmatism, the GOP can easily get back into the White House. But if it yields to its extremes, the party might be hearing the same advice every four years.