"Those protest voting or who didn't vote had sh!t for brains."
One must tread carefully when one blames ones loss on voters who did not vote for you, rather than the party for no presenting a slate of policies and candidates which garners enough votes to maintain political power.
Such an attitude merely perpetuates the idea that we (the GOP are somehow correct, and the voters are contemptible....from there it is an easy path to dictatorial thinking and ultimately to dictatorship.
This thinking seems to dominate the GOP and even the debate here on FR.
We were wrong. The voters called us on it and we, as the results would have it, rightfully suffered the wrath of the electorate who do not want to buy what we, as a party, were selling.
Period.
The voters are not stupid. We are for not seeing what was in front of our face.
We can remain stupid, or we can educate ourselves and make ourselves into a party that can accomplish important strategic goals.
Having contempt for the electorate doesn't get us anywhere.