Posted on 11/11/2012 11:27:31 AM PST by pabianice
The key to understanding the 2012 election is simple: A huge slice of the electorate stayed home.
The punditocracy — which is more of the ruling class than an eye on the ruling class — has naturally decided that this is because Republicans are not enough like Democrats: They need to play more identity politics (in particular, adopt the Left’s embrace of illegal immigration) in order to be viable. But the story is not about who voted; it is about who didn’t vote. In truth, millions of Americans have decided that Republicans are not a viable alternative because they are already too much like Democrats. They are Washington. With no hope that a Romney administration or more Republicans in Congress would change this sad state of affairs, these voters shrugged their shoulders and became non-voters.
“This is the most important election of our lifetime.” That was the ubiquitous rally cry of Republican leaders. The country yawned. About 11 million fewer Americans voted for the two major-party candidates in 2012 — 119 million, down from 130 million in 2008. In fact, even though our population has steadily increased in the last eight years (adding 16 million to the 2004 estimate of 293 million Americans), about 2 million fewer Americans pulled the lever for Obama and Romney than for George W. Bush and John Kerry.
That is staggering.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
14 million for Texas? Looks like 8 million here.
I can almost hear Tony Bennett crooning “I left my vote in Barcelona”. That of course is where SCYTL’s corporate headquarters are located.
Add to that thought, if you voted "Other"........
we had one last shot.....it's gone based on pricipals......
No wonder we're known as the party of "stupid"
What's worse is the GOP won't change for next time....what is otherwise known as stepping on your own d**k.
And we will do it EVERY TIME the RNC pushes such a LAME candidate in our faces and has jerks like the ones seen here on FR these days saying, "Vote for him or ELSE!"
You blamers are SO pathetic!
Suck it up and work for an ELECTABLE candidate next time.
Those Republicans who “stayed at home”should be condemned in the harshest language!!People who think Obama’s first term was a Failure are IGNORANT!!!His first term was a resounding SUCCESS!!!!He has expanded government and gotten his ObamaCare and INCREASED DRAMATICALLY dependence on government!!!!!These were(and are)his goals and those who are”pulling his strings”!!!!!!Watch what he does now that he doesn’t need re-election!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tony voted for Obama, he's a raging moonbat.
Look, I hate to break it to you guys, but we lost. Do you honestly believe that there was a concerted national effort throw away Republican ballots all over the country?? For crying out loud, the guy running this forum said he wasn’t even voting for Romney!!
Did the Dems stuff ballots? Absolutely. But that still doesn’t answer the question as to why Republicans in droves stayed home. And the pollsters were dead on the money.
If you think this was just a massive, national conspiracy to actively throw away Republican ballots, I don’t know what to tell you. Sometimes... you just lose. Whining about it won’t solve the problem.
oh for crying out loud when will the cowards learn that this was not about republicans not turning up it was a rigged election and we’re finding out more around the country and so is Allen West.
Fed up of seeing articles by the cowards saying we did not turn up and yet 8 millions did not turn up either for his side,.
That is crap
Take your 'mercy' and shove it!
We neither want it nor need it!
Newsflash:. No white man from Cuban refugee parents qualifies as “Hispanic” to the majority of Spanish-speakers here, who are from Mexico and Puerto Rico. He can stand up there and talk about his father coming here and shoveling shit, but it’s not going to cut it with the mariachi crowd - just as a happily-married pro-life woman like Sarah Palin is an anathema to the viewers of “The View”.
You can’t play identity politics by saying “me too” while being unaware of the meaning underlying its tribal masquerade. And it is a sign of contempt to not know, to not bother to get what it’s really about - suppose I said “next time let’s run a man” and I thought that a nerdy 98 lb weakling college professor could beat the opposition’s candidate who was a handsome, virile, war hero star athlete - and then I got all mad at you when you pointed out to me that while my nerdy guy was a man, he didn’t qualify as “a man” to the macho voters. It would be too obvious to even talk about, wouldn’t it? Well that’s how much a white Cuban from an anti Castro family reads as “one of us” to mixed-blood part Indian Central Americans and mixed-blood part Negro Puerto Ricans.
I still can’t believe so many were that gung ho about the election. Double??? Maybe we were hacked, too. Maybe it was a play to get the dem numbers up so next time they can overcome the Republicans and turn us purple or blue.
You’re a democrat operative being paid to post your crap. IOW the enemy.
What a pathetic giver-upper!
Quit waiting to HEAR what's best for America and start SAYING what's best for America!
nail on head.
not turning out is the media’s and the left talking points to get us to move on and shut up.
i’m sick of seeing these kind of crap B/S articles coming on FR
I saw a post earlier off a freeper who said yes fraud happens we move on and look at 2016.
Now that has go to down as one of the dumbest posts I have ever seen on the internet let alone on here
First off, some of this decline has to be from the fact that a huge part of the nation was recovering from Sandy but that should have affected Obama more in the total count.
For those that keep repeating how they stayed home b/c Romney was as bad as Obama, please tell me how many of you voted for McCain and not Romney ? You have every right to stay home, but I know dozens of people that didn’t vote for McCain and turned out for Romney. I’ve yet to meet anyone that did the opposite. If fewer voted for Romney than McCain in OH and PA there surely have to be plenty of you out there. Unless the difference came from voter destruction, that’s my take on it. I guess I’ve yet to see the partisan turnout in OH. If more R’s showed up for him and the I’s didn’t show up that could be the problem too.
Last time I looked, we had a number of conservative candidates that republican primary voters failed to support. Most republicans did not participate and the ones that did changed candidates every time CNN said something bad about one.
The best way to deal with RINOs is to vote them out in the primary the way Cruz won over Dewhurst, not sit out the general like so-called republicans did to Romney.
Compromise is the word you looking for. We always have to compromise, be more partisan, cross the isle, and give it away. Lest we be called some names.....
The D's never compromise, and they never have intended to, and never will. Just our side HAS to do that.
Well, don't have to, but willingly do.
Hello? There ARE NO DROVES of Republicans that "stayed home."
Almost all the Bible Belt votes are counted (90%+ per state). Romney received MORE votes (those officially counted so far) than McCain OR Bush in 2004.
If people were staying home because Romney was a RINO or Mormon, it would have shown up in the Bible Belt turnout. It did not.
End of story.
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