GOP Dilemma: Draw New Voters Without Irking Base

AP ^ | May 27, 2013 | AP, via WMAL.com

[Timber Rattler]

The Republican Party, having lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections, confronts a dilemma that's easier to describe than to solve: How can it broaden its appeal to up-for-grabs voters without alienating its conservative base?

There's no consensus yet on how to do it. With the next election three years away, Republicans are tiptoeing around policy changes even as they size up potential candidates who range from tea party heroes to pragmatic governors in Republican- and Democratic-leaning states.

(snip)

While they circle that conundrum, Republican leaders hope for a charismatic nominee in the mold of Clinton or Ronald Reagan. They yearn for someone who can appeal to less ideological voters without prompting conservatives to feel their principles are losing primacy.

[muawiyah]

Seriously, that was a major part of my math background and I spent a good 30 years working with some of the largest and most complex statistical sampling systems ever devised by the mind of man.

When you've normally had 50% and higher response rates and new technology drops you to a 9% response rate at best, you really no longer have something that is under statistical control and you can't say it's reliable.

The fact you would even begin to argue with me on the point is a demonstration you don't know anything about statistical sampling, whether for opinion, profiles or quality control

[muawiyah]

it’s good that at least 47% of wager earners pay no federal income tax. We’d be much better off if 100% paid no federal income tax!

[Colonel_Flagg]

They yearn for someone who can appeal to less ideological voters without prompting conservatives to feel their principles are losing primacy.

Great. They want to nominate a liar.

Conservative values were chased off the Grand Old Plantation a long time ago.

[muawiyah]

We could hand the 1.2 million general quota over to Mexicans for the next decade ~ provided the ones here go home. Let their agents come in and round people up in fact ~ bet Mexican cops can do that job Americans don’t want to do.

[Tammy8]

There are many untapped conservative votes out there of all ages. I talk to conservatives all the time that do not vote. They have excuses...vote doesn’t matter, you name it. We need to rally these people and get them to the polls. The best way of course is to find a candidate that fires people up and then go after new voters aggressively. If we don’t find that candidate that lights a fire then it will be harder but we really need to bring out the voters. The number of actual voters is really small in this country and we need to find a way to get the conservative thinkers to the polls.

[muawiyah]

We need to quit running people who are physically, morally and mentally repulsive to the majority of Republican voters ~

[LibLieSlayer]

I want the border closed... sealed... legal immigration only... enforce existing law now... no amnesty... no citizenship and no jobs. That is my plan.

LLS

[LibLieSlayer]

I said slightly more dims than republicans... 4.5 million dims... one half millon more than republicans is a bit more than “slightly more”... I will admit... but it is close.

LLS

[kabar]

If you select the right kind of sample it doesn’t matter if the response rate is 9%. It matters what comprises the 9%. The fact is that the legitimate polls predicted the outcome of the election fairly accurately. Somehow, they managed with the 9% response rate.

[kabar]

Yeah right.

[kabar]

We need to reduce legal immigration from the current 1.2 million a year and go to a merit based system rather than a kinship system.

40% of the illegal aliens come here legally and overstay their visas. We need to fully implement the 1996 US-VISIT system to track and deport visa overstays.

We also need mandatory E-verify and stronger penalties on employers who hire illegal aliens.

[LibLieSlayer]

Damned good start!

LLS

[muawiyah]

There are more Dems than Reps and they die faster, so it’s probably closer to 4.5 than not ~ BTW, I’m using that Bush drop off and the minor Romney recovery to work up a formula for this, and it looks close to 4 million Republicans kicked the bucket ~ (give or take a few) ~ but there were more Dems. We could write up some quadratic equations here to help us reduce the problem to a very simple formula, but make sure we always note that the number of Dems at the start is some number X greater than the number of Reps.

[muawiyah]

Actually no one succeeded at anything but getting a good trendline with polls with a 9% response rate ~ they used outside information to carve out better answers for their clients. People have been doing that for thousands of years lest the king just cut off their heads!

[kabar]

"Not surprisingly, the Obama coalition is most supportive of Obamacare," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "A majority of younger Americans favor the new health care law; support among other age groups falls as low as 31% among senior citizens. Only a third of whites support the law, compared to six in 10 non-whites. Obamacare also wins majority support in urban areas and in the Northeast, the bluest region of the country."

[LibLieSlayer]

satan is assaulting us on all fronts. Perhaps the only solution is to divide... but we are not at that point yet and I will not give up. If that day comes... I will help to rebuild the Free States... for surely some will wish to live in servitude to the darkness. Many of these “youth” are lost souls... and in the same way... some states are lost entities.

LLS

[IamConservative]

I know it is not a popular opinion here, but the way for Republicans to win elections IMO is to make the elections about fiscal and constitutional conservatism and to articulate the conservative viewpoints clearly. We aren’t going to win on social issues and we aren’t going to win with candidates who are afraid to be conservative.