Fact is, the majority of Obama supporters will be affected, they simply do not understand that fact, and will not recognize who is at fault even when it hits them, which it will.
Single women, even those in the top 10% of income earners, think Republicans want to take away their birth control. Blacks think almost to the person that Republicans want to put them back in slavery. Hispanics think that Republicans hate them. Young people think Republicans are greedy evil bastards and mostly aren't 'cool.' enough. These people do not think through the issues because they really have no idea what the issues are.
The Republican "Brand" is is such a turn off to those people that they will never vote for a Republican. But the Republicans didn't create that Brand Identity that is killing them. The Democrats (and their subsidiary in the MSM) created that brand for the Republicans. Through this election season, the Republicans did noting to dispel that brand image, and have never attempted to impose a negative 'brand image' on the Democrats -- which would be easy as hell, IMHO.
I have heard the term used before, so I claim no credit for coining it, but those people who buy into that negative image of Republicans are 'Low Information Voters' and the sad fact is that the majority of the voting population in this country now fall into that category and the vast majority of those are Democrats. These people simply do not even know what the issues are let along have an opinion on the best way to deal with them.
By 'low information' I mean that they will side with one party (i.e. candidate) based not upon any rational analysis of the issues, but upon their perceptions of either the candidate or the party that candidate belongs to. They will most often vote totally opposite of their own best interests simply because of feelings.
In our current society where many people can name the last nine winners of American Idol, few could name even one Supreme Court justice, or who their congressman or Senators are. But they still vote.
Perhaps it has always been this way, but the thesis I am toying with at this point is an issue of 'branding.' I think yesterdays results were not a indicative of people approving of the job Obama has done, but of a rapidly growing percentage of the population's unwillingness to even consider voting for a Republican. Issues really make no difference to them... they don't look at the issues.
The Democrats have managed to stamp a 'negative brand' on the Republican party, and using logic or facts on these 'low information' voters just does not work.
I do not think the Republicans need to change anything on their positions. If they could get people to even listen to those positions, they would have an overwhelming majority. But the 'Republican Brand Image' is killing them. What they really need to do is change their brand perception.
We have zero chance of running millions of people through 7th grade civics followed by a Econ 101 class and sprinkled in with a dash of Western Civilization. Those low information voters do not understand even the basics of those as a result of 30+ years of degradation of the public school systems. We can not change that fact at this point.
But some good marketing and rebranding could work.
Excellent!!! I, as an American/Conservative/Hispanic agree with you and starting today I will do my part in trying to help in REBRANDING the Republican name and teaching conservatism to my fellow Hispanics. There is no reason why the GOP can not get at least 40% plus of that vote which would make future electioins very competitive! Heck even R/R got almost 30% in this dismal election! I’ll keep my fellow FRs posted on my progress...