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I'm always struck, if one chances to be with a GOP insider when a new poll rolls off the wire, that their first reaction is to query whether it's of "likely" voters or merely "registered" voters. As the consultant class knows, registered voters skew more Democrat than likely voters, and polls of "all adults" skew more Democrat still. Hence the preoccupation with turnout models. In other words, if America had compulsory voting as Australia does, the Republicans would lose every time. In Oz, there's no turnout model, because everyone turns out. The turnout-model obsession is an implicit acknowledgment of an awkward truth – that, outside the voting booth, the default setting of American society is ever more liberal and statist.

Absolutely true, but it is true because the majority of Americans do not even know what the issues are. That majority votes for identity and affinity, and the Republicans have allowed their "Brand Identity' and Affinity to be defined by the Democrats. It's a simple as that.

People no longer vote on their own self interests, (contrary to Limbaugh's Santa Claus thesis). They vote on vaguely perceived impressions. There is no logic operating. It's an 'American Idol' contest to them.

I could introduce you to dozens of people who always vote Democrat, but who would agree with the Republican position on nearly every issue you could present to them (presented in totally non partisan terms.)

But those people don't vote on the issues. They vote for some name on the ballot based totally on perception and the Republicans can argue for ever on the merits of the issues, and they will not change their minds. If the Republicans want it, they think it must be bad for them.

That is the world we live in, and the only way out is for the Republicans not to change their beliefs, but to change the perception of the party with that majority of the low information electorate.

Its the American Idol and Dancing with the Stars world now. The Republican Party needs to find a way to deal with it, or we are done.

Low information voters rule the country, and the Democrats own them.