Obama's 2nd term - bad news for Dems long term.

[Vic Vega]

Obama's second term will be bad for Dems and it's not even his fault - and here's why.

The GOP failed because it was too extreme to the right on social issues. People love the financial stuff and the business stuff but can't get past the creepy religious stuff and some perceived and some real racial issues.

So what is the GOP going to do now? Fix it, of course. They are going to back off on social issues and adopt a more Libertarian stance meanwhile focusing on business and financial conservatism - things people care deeply about.

Meanwhile, the Democrats will not drop ANY of their extremest views. What you're going to get in 2016 is a GOP candidate which will pull in all the base Republican voters - that's the 59 million people who voted for Romney, all the independent voters and all the centrist Democrats, around 20 million people. The Democrats however, will still be holding on to their extremist views. It will be the same thing which just happened to the GOP except for the Democrats.



<---- Registered Libertarian, voted for Gary Johnson

 

[Schmide]

Can you please list the Democrat's extremest views? Just so we know we're on the same page.

 

[schneiderguy]

Can you please list the Democrat's extremest views? Just so we know we're on the same page.

The War on Minorities, the War on Women and the War on Youths are all extremist components of the Democrat party platform.

 

[hardhat]

Despite these constant predictions, libertarians are actually less popular than republicans in general. Otherwise, we would have seen a serious Ron Paul run. And the idea that the nation favors conservative fiscal policy is only an easy sell on face value. Something like 65% of Americans claim to be fiscally conservative. But about that same percent favor increased taxes on the rich. Do you think democrats want to raise taxes on the middle class or the poor? Then where does the divergence that republicans will exploit lie? Republicans already tried the "lower taxes for everyone" policy under Bush, and there has been a giant backlash against that sentiment in the last two presidential elections. Do you think republicans will be able to exploit "the looming deficit" after taking us off the fiscal cliff, refusing to cooperate to lower the deficit in a grand bargain, and creating much of that deficit with two unpaid for wars and Bush tax cuts?

Honestly, your predictions seem as hollow as all of the blaming that is going on right now as to why Romney lost the election. People blame main stream media. People blame Sandy. People blame voter fraud. But people refuse to blame their own policies. The truth is that the republican party is fracturing already. This is why, despite "winning" independents in a lot of swing states, Romney lost. Those independents were actually mostly formerly republicans that have refused to accept the whole GOP platform. Persuading those same people to rejoin the GOP won't win an election.

 

[bradley]

I believe the GOP lost because a) they weren't conservative at all b) they made concerted efforts to designate "conservative" as a bad word.

Until the system has parity and fairness, the party promising free stuff outright (while taxing in ordinary unseen ways) will always win.

Illegal immigrants are especially easy to fool with their existence furthest from the status quo. Obviously built-in voters have become more valuable to democrats than built-in slaves have to the republicans.

 

[Farang]

The War on Minorities, the War on Women and the War on Youths are all extremist components of the Democrat party platform.

Is everyone supposed to be familiar with these rightwing buzzwords? What do they mean?

 

[monovillage]

Can you please list the Democrat's extremest views? Just so we know we're on the same page.

All of them I don't agree with. Tell me what your views are on every subject and I'll let you know.

 

[Lemon law]

The other question for 2014 and 2016 for the GOP is to find a common leader who can unite the GOP. The GOP used to be a party of common sense legislators able to work in a bi-partisan manner and now the GOP has fragmented into a party of extremist nuts with various agendas that have little in common with each other. As the GOP leadership is now out of step with its more rational electorate. And worse yet, changing American demographics work to the disadvantage of the small tent GOP.

 

[First]

Repubs aren't fiscally conservative, that's pretty much where the argument falls apart.

Neither are libertarians btw. They just talk a good game.

 

[bradley]

Anyhow, Eisenhower was likely the last true conservative President. And that was over fifty years ago.

 

[Farang]

The other question for 2014 and 2016 for the GOP is to find a common leader who can unite the GOP. The GOP used to be a party of common sense legislators able to work in a bi-partisan manner and now the GOP has fragmented into a party of extremist nuts with various agendas that have little in common with each other. As the GOP leadership is now out of step with its more rational electorate. And worse yet, changing American demographics work to the disadvantage of the small tent GOP.

They basically need Bush '00. A good politician with a strong brand, who is trusted on the right so he can move to the center without problems. Chris Christie comes to mind, I don't know how well he does on the national stage though.

Mitt was an awkward politician with a strong brand who wasn't trusted on the right so could never move to the center. Only at the last minute, when the right had neither the time nor the inclination to complain, did he try to go moderate.

 

[JEDIYoda]

The Republicans need none of the above.
With any or all of the above they will never ever again have a sitting republican in the White House.

The Republicans need several things to happen.....

They need to correct their stand on immigration -- the hispanic vote is very important....
They need to correct their stand on the abortion issue.....single women are a formidable block of voters...
They need to change their stance on the Gay marriage issue and allow it to happen..again the Gay/Lesbian vote is also important....

They don`t even need to correct their stand on fiscal issues...just the above ands they could have won.

Finally the Republican party needs to distance itself from the influences of the "Christain right"....

 

[wuliheron]

LOL, Mitt Romney calling half of America lazy bums and moochers is socially dysfunctional, not a social issue on the republican platform. Rush Limbaugh calling any woman who uses birth control a slut is socially dysfunctional, not a social platform. These ignorant hillbillies just got told to go to the back of the bus if they can't get along with people and still don't get it. Guess we'll just have to keep voting in democrats until they hang their heads like the dogs they are.

 

[Arkaign]

The Republicans need none of the above.
With any or all of the above they will never ever again have a sitting republican in the White House.

The Republicans need several things to happen.....

They need to correct their stand on immigration -- the hispanic vote is very important....
They need to correct their stand on the abortion issue.....single women are a formidable block of voters...
They need to change their stance on the Gay marriage issue and allow it to happen..again the Gay/Lesbian vote is also important....

They don`t even need to correct their stand on fiscal issues...just the above ands they could have won.

Finally the Republican party needs to distance itself from the influences of the "Christain right"....

That's almost the exact same thing I posted not long ago.

They have a ticking clock, because the caustic nature of today's political climate is apt to create lasting impressions and lifelong hatreds and affiliations. The Tea-Party/Religious Right GOP has proven adept at making enemies.

 

[ericlp]

Yawn... OK, wake me up when 2016 get's here and we will see if your right... Most likely you won't be. But until then....... Who the fuck cares.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Yawn... OK, wake me up when 2016 get's here and we will see if your right... Most likely you won't be. But until then....... Who the fuck cares.

doesn`t matter who is right,,,if the Republicans do not change the Democrats will again own the White House...that is a fact!!

 

[monovillage]

Yawn... OK, wake me up when 2016 get's here and we will see if your right... Most likely you won't be. But until then....... Who the fuck cares.

How about when midterm elections get here in 2014 and Republicans bolster their grip on the House and add votes in the Senate.

 

[Tylanner]

This is great news for Dems long term. There is no doubt the entire political landscape has shifted to the "left". Progressive ideas have a national stronghold and political scientists know this. Obama's "change" is real and the next GOP candidate will look a lot more like Obama than Bush.

How is this bad for Democrats...if GOP shifts more libertarian, that is going to win the hearts of a large number of young progressives and also shift the entire country away from the GOPs central figures. Instead of diametrically opposed platforms, a libertarian and a liberal party have more affinity for each other, with neither being strictly "right"

 

[wuliheron]

How is this bad for Democrats...if GOP shifts more libertarian, that is going to win the hearts of a large number of young progressives and also shift the entire country away from the GOPs central figures. Instead of diametrically opposed platforms, a libertarian and a liberal party have more affinity for each other, with neither being strictly "right"

The GOP is 87% Lilly white with an average of 22 times the wealth of blacks and 15 times that of Hispanics. Going more libertarian won't gain a significant number of members because these people would be shooting themselves in the foot. About the only thing I can see the GOP doing is creating a new agenda of fighting corruption in government and business, especially those businesses that favor the democrats which are growing in number (everybody loves a winner). Politics makes for strange bedfellows and seeing the GOP endorsed by Occupy Wall Street would definitely be strange, but not unimaginable.

 

[Thump553]

The Republicans need none of the above.
With any or all of the above they will never ever again have a sitting republican in the White House.

The Republicans need several things to happen.....

They need to correct their stand on immigration -- the hispanic vote is very important....
They need to correct their stand on the abortion issue.....single women are a formidable block of voters...
They need to change their stance on the Gay marriage issue and allow it to happen..again the Gay/Lesbian vote is also important....They don`t even need to correct their stand on fiscal issues...just the above ands they could have won.

Finally the Republican party needs to distance itself from the influences of the "Christain right"....

In other words the GOP has to abandon essentially all of its current core issues and do so in a manner which will not turn off it's current core and which will attract new voters. All to become a clone of the present Democratic Party, which any objective analysis will show is remarkably conservative despite the constant braying of trolls and TV pundits about such nonsense as socialism, etc.

So how can the GOP recover? Frankly I don't have the slightest idea, the present party is primarily rooted in false nostalgia. I think a far more likely occurence is it will be eventually be surpassed by a new (financially conservative socially liberal) party and the current GOP will become a strong third party focused almost entirely in a Southern redneck bible belt base.

A true financially conservative socially liberal party could bleed off a lot of Dem support, which is what they desperately need.

 

[IGBT]

the bigger picture is it's bad news for the country. The liberals will greatly empower and enable the liberal moochers and parasites and assure that behavior is institutionalized at all levels of bigGov.

 

[Siddhartha]

Obama's second term will be bad for Dems and it's not even his fault - and here's why.

The GOP failed because it was too extreme to the right on social issues. People love the financial stuff and the business stuff but can't get past the creepy religious stuff and some perceived and some real racial issues.

So what is the GOP going to do now? Fix it, of course. They are going to back off on social issues and adopt a more Libertarian stance meanwhile focusing on business and financial conservatism - things people care deeply about.

Meanwhile, the Democrats will not drop ANY of their extremest views. What you're going to get in 2016 is a GOP candidate which will pull in all the base Republican voters - that's the 59 million people who voted for Romney, all the independent voters and all the centrist Democrats, around 20 million people. The Democrats however, will still be holding on to their extremist views. It will be the same thing which just happened to the GOP except for the Democrats.



<---- Registered Libertarian, voted for Gary Johnson

1. I am willing the bet two beers that the GOP can not back off from their xenophobia, Social, religious, Southern Strategy, etc agenda. They are part of what the party is about.

2. In the real world where most people live being for minority rights, Medicare, Medicade, women's rights, education, etc are not extreme positions. The modern day Democratic Party has it roots in FDR. FDR became POTUS 80 years ago.

 

[techs]

I believe Rick Santorum will be the Republican nominee in 2016

 

[Doppel]

Whatever makes you feel better, Vic

 

[Lonbjerg]

The Republicans need none of the above.
With any or all of the above they will never ever again have a sitting republican in the White House.

The Republicans need several things to happen.....

They need to correct their stand on immigration -- the hispanic vote is very important....
They need to correct their stand on the abortion issue.....single women are a formidable block of voters...
They need to change their stance on the Gay marriage issue and allow it to happen..again the Gay/Lesbian vote is also important....

They don`t even need to correct their stand on fiscal issues...just the above ands they could have won.

Finally the Republican party needs to distance itself from the influences of the "Christain right"....

They also need to get their heads out of the bibles ass...religion has to much to say in politics in the US...thank "god" (pun intended) that the younger generation more and more rejects superstition

Magic underwear...FFS!!! LOL