Posted on 11/13/2012 8:54:15 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The most widely offered explanation for Mitt Romney's defeat is that the Republican Party is disproportionately composed of -- aging -- white males.
That is, alas, true.
But the real question is what Republicans should do with this truth.
There are two responses.
The nearly universal response -- meaning the response offered by the liberal media and liberal academics (and some Republicans) -- is that the Republican Party needs to rethink its positions, moving away from conservatism and toward the political center.
The other response is for conservatives and the Republican Party to embark on a massive campaign to influence, and ultimately change, the values of those groups that voted Democrat.
The Democratic Party, and the left generally, have done a magnificent job in identifying conservative values as white male values. One reason for their success is that they dominate virtually every lever of influence -- the high schools and universities, television, newspapers, movies, pop culture and everything else except talk radio. Another is that they really believe that conservative values are nothing more than white male -- especially aging white male -- values. Remember, leftism has its own trinity -- the prism through which it perceives the world -- race, gender and class. In this case the race is white; the gender is male; and the class is rich.
As a result of this identification, there is no debate over whether the minorities' (and single women's) values are correct or whether the values of the white males are correct. The left has successfully forestalled any such national discussion by simply reducing conservative values to the dying fulminations of a former ruling class.
In the words of New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, "Mitt Romney is the president of white male America."
This identification seems to be working. But it's intellectually dishonest. Aging white males are as important to the left as they are to the right.
In a recent issue of the New York Review of Books, liberal Harvard professor Benjamin M. Friedman strongly criticized the Tea Party. After citing "surveys showing that Tea Party members are 'predominantly white, male, older, more college-educated and better off economically than typical Americans,'" he noted parenthetically "they sound like, say, readers of The New York Review of Books."
Come to think of it, these people who make up the tea party also sound like the people who attend classical music concerts, who endow concert halls, museums, hospitals, and universities, and fund left-wing causes (George Soros, for example).
Perhaps when this generation of aging white males dies off, aging women, aging Latino and black males, and young people will become the readers of journals such as the New York Review of Books and endow symphony orchestras.
I suspect not. And if not, the left may come to regret its contempt for this particular group. Without aging white males, I doubt the New York Times would survive. How many young people, females, Hispanics and blacks subscribe to the New York Times?
Obviously the issue for the left isn't aging white males, it is conservatives, whether they are young or old, white or nonwhite, male or female. If female aborigines were conservative, the left would have a problem with female aborigines.
For conservatives, the issue is that for generations now, they have failed to make the case for their values. They haven't even conveyed conservative values to many of their children. And when they have, the university has often succeeded in undoing them.
The only answer to the "demographic" problem, therefore, is to bring women (single women, to be precise), young people, Hispanics, and blacks to conservative values. I wrote a column in September ("It's not Just the Economy, Stupid!") criticizing the Mitt Romney campaign for only talking about jobs and the economy. President Obama kept saying that this election was about two different visions of America. But like George Herbert Walker Bush, the Romney campaign appeared to disdain "the vision thing."
Our only hope for America is that every conservative takes upon him or herself the project of learning what American and conservative values are, coming to understand what leftism stands for, and learning how to make the case for those values to women, young people, blacks and Hispanics. That is what my radio show, latest book and Prager University are about. And while I am, happily, hardly alone, there are still far too few of us who understand "the vision thing." Surely the Republican establishment has not.
We should missionize for the American Trinity (Liberty, In God We Trust, E Pluribus Unum) as least as passionately as the left has missionized for its antithesis -- Egalitarianism, Secularism and Multiculturalism. Or we will lose America as we have always known it.
lotsa luck wit dat
Okay. Fine. If anyone on this forum falls into that category, please tell me why those who voted for DemocRATS or didn't vote at all would then vote Republican?
How do you argue against “free stuff” with people who don’t care about something as complex as somebody else’s debt? There’s a 10 trillion dollar lesson to be learned, if the 47% can learn it.
Trayvon Martin?
I am not optimistic about this. The majority of kids raised by parents who were never married, who have abortions in their teens and twenties, who grew up on welfare, and were raised to think that white people or “rich people” are their enemies will not ever be Republicans or conservatives.
I now believe that nothing short of a dramatic intervention or chastisement by God will change the course this country is on. One example: assisted suicide just lost in Massachusetts. However, it lost by only two percentage points. I'll bet it's put to a vote in that state again within three years...and passes. People are being ground down and Americans who remember a time when abortion, being on welfare, and gay marriage were anathema are dying off.
Yes, young people tend to be politically liberal and people grow more conservative as they age. However, our culture no longer gives lip service to traditional values, so there is nothing for most young people to go back to once they realize they've been mistaken.
Last year, President Obama didn't even allude to a Creator in his Thanksgiving Day Proclamation. How will this country survive when its President is a de facto atheist and when God-fearing people can't get elected?
BINGO....BINGO....BINGO, DENNIS!!!! How RIGHT you are. The minorities are a MESS..
BINGO....BINGO....BINGO, DENNIS!!!! How RIGHT you are. The minorities are a MESS..
I'm a bit more optimistic about this. We are more likely to win (ie, not lose as much) in non-presidential election cycles. You can probably plot a straight line on a graph - as turnout increases, liberalism increases proportionally. Applies to candidates as well as ballot questions. This got Brown as Senator for 2+ years; this got the fake indian, non-licensed practicing lawyer warren in last week. It would be interesting exercise to see if 'R' state reps/sinators increase more in the off years and shrink in the presidential years...
I'm not saying I am giving up or that any of us has a right to give up. I'll keep voting, writing letters, donating, and marching. However, I now believe that dramatic action by God is the only thing that will save this country.
“God is not mocked.” I fear for our country that God will act — and I fear for our country that He won't.
This is on the mark. That is the only hope because fast changing demographics are making it harder and harder to win certain key states every year.
I know we are still in bitter (shock of loss) mode :” They all can go to hell we dont need them. We can just impeach Obama and our problem will be solved”
.or..
:”We won that election easily. It was voter fraud in all those swing states that did cause this. I know they stole the election. And most of the polls were rigged too. The only accurate poll Gallop said that Romney would win and by gum that is what he did, so next time we will ...??”
but ‘head in sand = drowning when tide comes in’
And yes, it will be very difficult! But Romney didnt have a clue. I saw that too.
The start is that we need to agree on what conservative values are, before we attempt to influence others.
If you're like me, a social conservative that wants traditional American and Christian values supported. And a fiscal conservative that wants fiscally responsible government that doesn't shirk from it's duties, but does them efficiently and in a balanced approach. Then fine.
But if you're not like me, then you're the problem. You're probably why we nominated Romney in the first place.
I'm still puzzling over the Romney nomination, though. The MSM played a part. But is there a large part of the GOP that calls itself conservative, that believes conservatism is just a democrat platform with a GOP label?
Not gonna happen. I am a 'latino' myself, an immigrant, but legal and American first.
I first experienced the postwar USA and it was a different universe where immigration laws were unquestioned and applied without controversy or challenge.
The current "appealing to the Latino vote" is simply the road to Mexico North. If we wanted to live in Mexico, my family would have immigrated there.
The 'new' political strategy for the melting pot can not end well.
” For conservatives, the issue is that for generations now, they have failed to make the case for their values. They haven’t even conveyed conservative values to many of their children. And when they have, the university has often succeeded in undoing them. “
We dropped the ball. but the Republican Party dropped it harder. You are NOT going to convert 20+ million illegals to vote Republican, either.
What if we just offer them more *stuff* than Dems do? That wont work? :)
Thats always my first question when Rs propose amnesty to ‘save the party’, “How will you make sure they wont Vote Democrat like the others do”
” Thats always my first question when Rs propose amnesty to ‘save the party’,”
Any republican who says this is a traitor.
Maybe when they (illegals after amnesty) see how well you have done they will turn down the food stamps, section 8, government jobs, medicaid, free college, all handouts, and just open up a small business and hire people, and vote Republican for a tax cut.
If every illegal hired 10 Americans we would have a shortage of workers and the deficit would be zero. I heard they are very conservative.
You see any flaws in my plan ?? :)
Please - put me into the category of an angry, white, Christian, straight, conservative, “rich,” male. Why am I angry? Because the majority of my country are narcissistic, self-centered, and apathetic towards the future of the USA. And our President and Congress do not have the will to control their spending.
How can I be “happy” under those circumstances???
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