No one is delusional. People like those you mentioned, and thousands of others are examples of why you should judge a man on the quality of his character rather than the color of his skin. That is a conservative position, straight out of our founding document: “All men are created equal.”
The GOP will not get a majority of minority voters in the near future. They don’t need to. However, they do need to get a larger percentage of that vote. That is not going to happen while pubbies are perceived as racists. A common perception among minorities (even those who would be philosophically predisposed to vote R) is that republicans are uncaring about the poor, only interested in helping the rich, and haters of all people of color. That has to change if the GOP is going to make inroads.
A lot has been said regarding what happened last week, and in particular the demographic shunt that has been furtively occurring for the last decade and a half and is only being noticed now (by all and sundry).
My 2 cents, as a conservative who just happens to be Black, are as follows.
The GOP faces several major challenges, key among them being the slow shift to the Left over at least three decades (I've always maintained that a Democrat from the JFK era would be considered 'too conservative' for the current GOP). As the Left has been shifting further to the left, the Right has, in tandem, followed them to the extent that while the Right is still conservative (when compared to the current Left), the Right has become Liberal (when compared to the JFK era Democrat and Republican parties). This is a trend that has continued to proliferate, and it is only in the last 12 years that it has accelerated. One might even say it goes all the way back to the George H.W Bush era, with Reagan being an aberration that was rectified when his Vice President took the top seat. I've have said a couple of times that the term RINO, as applied on FR, is obsolete - and for that matter, incorrect. The GOP-e are not RINOs ...they are Republicans. It is Conservatives who are 'Republicans in Name Only,' because the GOP-e is the GOP. FReepers, and other Conservative groupings, are actually a large minority in the GOP. This is one reason why in 2016 the Republican nominee will be another RINO ...erm, Republican. Another member of the GOP-e.
Another failing point in the Republican Party is their (in)ability to fashion together a viable persuasive narrative. They simply do not craft coherent narratives, and to make matters worse they allow the Left and the media to distil anti-conservative angles and approaches without doing anything to stem their flow. For instance - George Bush had several failings as a president, but he had many more positives. However, looking at how his story has been fleshed out by the media and popular thought one can think he was a veritable sot without an iota of intelligent thought nor positive action. Look at how they made Romney out to be. Even more damaging than the passiveness of the Right to character assassinations is the fact that the Right is simply unable to format a narrative that explains conservative positions in a comprehensible and logical manner that is, also, emotionally charged. One of the key advantages President Ronald Reagan had was his ability to talk to the people in a way that they could understand and could accept. Most of the politicians in the Right, instead, have messages that are solely crafted for the choir. Outside the core they are weak and/or silly. For instance, claiming that the body of a woman would automatically refuse to get impregnated if a rape was a 'real' rape. How do you think such a statement sounded? People here are saying young women refused to vote GOP because they wanted free things, when the truth is that such statements were skewed by the media to make the GOP look like oafs out of some 1660s serf village!
Conservatism has a wealth of ideas that should be able to sell themselves, but even the best of concepts require a mouth piece that is able to cogently explain and elaborate them. It doesn't matter how 'good someone would be in a debate' (preaching to the choir), or what 'nice children the person has' (again, preaching to the choir). It is about the ability to disseminate conservative precepts in a manner that is comprehensible to the masses, and apart from Ronald Reagan I cannot think of someone in the last few decades who could do it on our side (the Left, on the other hand, has a good number of demagogues ...not to mention the media constantly percolating liberal views on everything from sex to finances).
If you look at several minority groups - for instance the Blacks (many over 35 have strong social conservative leanings), Hispanics (strong social conservative leanings), and Asians (strong fiscal and social conservative leanings). What is the penetration of the GOP in these groups? Shallow and falling. Now, I've seen several FReepers say that approaching them is a waste of time, and they have their reasons for that (with some of those reasons being quite real, unfortunately).
So, what is the alternative? To do nothing?
Please!
Even if we could eek out an additional 10-15% of those voters we could guarantee that the Democrats would never win an election again. That would cripple them. The youth vote is not coming to the GOP, but above 35s can be acquired. But people have to try. Oh, and it CAN BE DONE. Think about it. Blacks used to vote en masse for the GOP for decades (even MLK Jr was Republican), and then a shift occurred where many of the racists that used to be in the Democrat party (the party of the Klu Klax Klan) started associating themselves with the GOP. Ask an Asian American why they are suspicious of the GOP. You really think it is because Asian Americans want free-stuff? Look at the crowds that were attending Romney meetings. Look at the member rolls of the NRA, where some rapper called Killer Mike had to come out and try to convince people to join the NRA (it is ridiculous that he should be doing it, but when no one else is then every single person available is the right person available. Which is one of the reasons why, even though I know MLK Jr had MANY faults from infidelity to all sorts of allegations, my answer to that is that there were many more 'perfect' people who did nothing. It's kind of the Samaritan story ...he is called a 'good Samaritan' for a reason, because they tended to be considered to be not so good. However, he was the THIRD person to pass the injured traveler. The first two were very holy men - who walked by. The third was the 'bad guy,' who stopped, helped the person, took him to a place where his wounds would be tended, and paid for it out of his own pocket. I will take a 'bad person' who does something over the millions of perfect people who are too busy/tired/afraid/weak to do something). But I digress.
The Asian community should be perfect GOP voters ...fiscally and socially conservative, small business owners facing taxation pressures, with a strong belief in family. Ask one of them why they do not vote GOP. Oh, and they can afford to buy their own iPhones so I doubt it was 'free stuff.'
What does the GOP need? In a nutshell, they need three things. In my view (which may be worth a bucket of warm spit, but it is still a view) they need (i) cogent crafting of The Conservative Narrative; (ii) leadership that is able to communicate The Conservative Narrative to the masses, and I am not just talking about preaching to the choir - Sarah Palin is AMAZING when it comes to mobilizing the conservative vote, but we need someone who will mobilize the conservative vote AND bring others in as well ....I am not necessarily talking about the return of the 'Reagan Democrats,' but that is close to what I mean. Someone who can be able to fire up the base like pressurized magma, and at the same time invigorate those outside the campfire and have them join our side. President Ronald Reagan was a natural at that. Having people like Romney is a joke, with McCain being a sad joke. And what is the third thing? (iii) Realization that the future of the GOP/Conservatism is not just in the leadership I described, and not in 'talk radio' (which is, truth be told, preaching to the choir) or idiots like Dick Morris and Karl Rove, but in all of us. Kind of similar to the Christian message that the best evangelist is the flock ...how we are, how we act, us. The churches that grow tend to be the ones that have a congregation that is not just a 'Sunday-crowd,' but rather one that walks the talk, and not just walking the talk but takes active measures to talk to friends and neighbors. Authenticity. Without that we are just an old boys club that will die out with age.
Anyways, my thoughts. They may be crap to some ...maybe to all ...but I know they are better than simply saying (a) do nothing; (b) the Left won solely because of voter fraud (yes, there was fraud, but that is like blaming a car crash due to drunk driving on worn tires - yes, the tires could have been newer, but had you not been drunk ....); or (c) Romney (yes, Romney was a RINO ...I mean, Republican; but if Romney had never been born the GOP-e would just have pushed forth another like him who would have had problems energizing the base AND found it impossible to invigorate those outside the base).
Oh, and the worst advice is to become more like the Democrats. In the same way a Hyundai with a Ferrari bodykit will never outperform a real Ferrari, a Democrat-lite will never beat the real thing. Furthermore, it will just continue the decades-old slow-progression to the Left (were JFK alive he would probably have voted for Virgil Goode because he would have thought the Democrat party veritably demonic, and the Republican party too liberal)!