If I were throwing up my hands, I would stop participating in local politics. I am giving you the facts based on 34 years of living here. You can accept that or not from your distant vantage point in TN. The reality is that VA is a purple state trending blue (Dem) and it is not going to be reversed unless this country reforms its immigration policies. Demography is destiny.
Zero got a lower percent of the vote than in 2008. That means the state voting preferences moved to the right. The combined opposition consisted of (ostensibly) a center-right bloc (Willard, Gary Johnson & Virgil Goode). Again, we had one of the WORST non-Conservative phonies put up by the Republican party since Wendell Willkie, and add in the other two, and the opposition still got to 49%.
These kinds of moral victories are for losers. The 47.28% for the Rep candidate was a high water mark for Reps in terms of the number of votes received for a Presidential candidate. It took tremendous effort to get 100,000 more votes than 2008 and we still lost. Nationally, Romney got 1 million more votes than McCain and Obama received 3.5 million fewer votes and the GOP still lost by 5 million votes.
We can continue to blame the candidates or the inability to communicate our message, but such excuses won't help us win. There is something far more fundamentally wrong with the GOP. And as the composition of our population continues to change, our chances of winning diminish.
Immigration, Political Realignment, and the Demise of Republican Political Prospects">
I'm sorry, but I'll tell you again that the nominee did not motivate the base. I did not vote for him in my state in the general (I voted for Virgil Goode). You may think you had a massive GOTV effort, but the problem remained that the candidate himself was no better than a ringer and a non-serious candidate. That he even managed to get 47% in Virginia is astounding. A real candidate who motivated the base would've won against the worst "President" in U.S. history.
I know Virgil personally. He is a good man and a real conservative. So you voted for Virgil in TN as though that makes some sort of difference. Romney won with 59% of the vote and Virgil received 6,022 votes.
You seem oblivious to what is happening in VA. Romney received more votes than any Rep Presidential candidate has ever received in this state. The base was motivated, but we don't have the numbers.
So what are you doing to reach them ? You keep lamenting the changing demographics and "shrinking pie", instead of taking notes from the opposition and pilfering their people. Used to be a time until the 1930s that the Democrats couldn't get the Black vote since it was overwhelmingly Republican. Did they sit on their hands ? Nope. They went out and aggressively courted their vote until after decades of hard work, they got a majority. Because the GOP is too timid and gutless, they don't bother to go straight into the heart of the opposition as the Democrats do. Occasionally they might put out a face, but they never put the resources behind it. I've never seen a party that often acts so eager to lose... so why should you or anyone else be surprised when they do ?
Blacks vote over 90% consistently for the Dems. They like and want Big Government. They have 71% out of wedlock birth rates. They have horrendous school dropout rates. They use the social welfare net more than any other group. Do you really think that limited government and lower taxes resonate with blacks or Hispanics? Here are a few graphs that depict how blacks have become a permanent underclass.
These ten charts show the black-white economic gap hasn’t budged in 50 years Here are a few:
I think you need to get better informed as to why and how the black vote shifted over to the Dems.
Demographics matter.
"It is accepted." Where's the fight ? Everything you write is dripping with defeatism and negativism.
You can't handle the facts.
And what is being done to make a play for their vote ? Writing them off is not an option. Either make the play or get off the damn field. Half the reason the GOP fails to make a dent is because they don't even bother to ask for their vote.
That is just not the case. Reps have asked for their votes, but they don't want to give them because it is in their vested interests to vote for the Dems, the party of free stuff. They depend on Big Government to survive.
Every election cycle I meet and talk with our Rep candidates locally who go up against Dem incumbents. They are filled with hubris and feel that they can court the minority vote and do better than the candidates before them. They go into the minority communities at local events, churches, town meetings etc. They make a concerted effort on outreach. Come election day they return deflated with their tails between their legs.
You manage to make 7% sound worse than 12%. That's movement in the GOP's direction. Again, NV Democrats haven't been able to elect a Governor in 20 years and barely hold a Senate seat with a massively unpopular Harry Reid. We have a talented Hispanic Republican Governor there, we also have a Latina Republican Governor in majority Hispanic New Mexico and the Republicans are making a serious play to capture the House of Representatives this year, which they are but a few seats away from capturing. By your reckoning, these states should be "gone." They're not.
Anything over 10% is a landslide. 7% is a comfortable victory. By my reckoning? I said that states like NM and CO are moving to the left. They will be solid Dem states in the not too distant future given the changing demographics. By 2019 half of the children 18 and under will be minorities as classified by the USG. Today, more than half of the students in 1st grade are minorities.
If Colorado has changed, then why do the Republicans score these wins ? You seem to just want to surrender in everything you write. "Demographics, y'know. It's all over."
Please. Yes, there will be individual victories, but the long term trend is what is disturbing. Obama won CO easily in 2008 and 2012. Obama received 35,000 more votes in 2012 than he did in 2008. And those two totals were the highest ever received by a Presidential candidate in any previous election. Romney received over 112,000 more votes than McCain and still lost.
You have a couple degrees ? Remind me not to get any. I've only spent the bulk of my life in independent political study rather than getting a good college brainwashing in intellectual dishonesty and negativity.
I am 70 years old. College and the "brainwashing" are long in the rear view mirror. I have been involved politically since I was 18.
Do I see California going Republican ? It can, but right now you've got an incompetent state party that serves the rich elites and won't do what is necessary to win. The state had the incredible opportunity to elect an accomplished leader in Tom McClintock as Governor. What did it elect ? A celebrity Austrian Socialist who was more fiscally leftist than the Democrat he replaced. He was so horrid that it had Jerry Brown replace him. The Republican Party does a shockingly good job at paving the way for extremist moonbats. Crap candidates, sabotage, non-Conservative policies, poor or non-campaigning. The Democrats luck out by having Republican elites as an "opposition."
You are delusional if you think the Reps will take back CA. In a decade, you will be able to count the number of Reps in the Congressional delegation on one hand. The current crop of 15 will face increasing challenges for reelection. Buck McKeon just retired. More will come as they realize that the numbers just aren't there for reelection.
Her entire life from out of college is filled to the brim with corruption, malfeasance and blood. But the RINO establishment is hell bent on making sure she wins. She is a GIFT to the Conservatives to draw stark differences between good and evil. But they can't be allowed anywhere near the nomination, because they might actually win. No, we must put up corpulent buffoon clowns like Christie with the claim that only "he" can win. Just like how only McCain could beat Zero and how only Willard could win. They never win. They are only ringers. This is why we must obliterate the Republican Establishment, the enforcers for the Democrats going back for decades.
Demography is destiny. We have entered the era of tribal politics. Obama's reelection shows we have reached a tipping point.
Take them down. It's not one way, it's now the only way and an absolute imperative.
So what are you doing to take down Corker and Alexander?