Ugh!
I don't really feel like writing a postmortem on this election but I guess I have to since IT'S OVER and ROMNEY LOST.
There are many reasons why this happened but let's start with some obvious ones....
Self-Deportation and the Growing Hispanic Majority
Hispanic-Americans are going to own the country by 2040. This is a fact. White people are losing their majority status because they aren't making as many babies as they used to and their browner counterparts are making more. The only way forward is to embrace this demographic and the issues that are important to them. That includes coming to some agreement about illegal immigration.
In the primaries, Romney ran to Perry's right on immigration in order to woo the nutbags. This hurt him badly with Latinos as well as other ethnic groups with high immigrant populations.
This has got to change and the GOP has several prominent Hispanic leaders who can help to grow a naturally GOP-leaning constituency but it can't be seen as tokenism. It means loosening up a little and changing some of the rigid cultural standards that make being a Republican an annoyingly uncomfortable (and sometimes a total) social liability.
Like with:
The War on Women
After the 2010 midterms gave Obama that shellacking, the hardline zealots in the US House and the state legislatures thought they had a divine mandate to go all draconian on abortion law. Women everywhere said Fuck That and in response we got to watch sound clips like this:
"Hey guys, this bill is keeping me from getting laid. We should trash it."
Because that's totally the point, right Dave Albo of Fairfax, Virginia? Why hasn't this fucker been kicked out yet? This entire episode cost Romney the Commonwealth and hurt Republicans nationwide. Women in Virginia found themselves facing the prospect of enforced intrusive sonograms in order to satisfy what? The supposed morally superior consciences of a bunch of GOP bros? Fuck That.
And it didn't stop with the idiots on the state level. Later in the year we got reminded AGAIN and AGAIN that a certain faction of the GOP has some strange ideas about rape and conception that don't mesh up with popular opinion, let alone science.
It's hard not to perceive an underlying disdain for women who seek to be more than baby-making machines and doting housewives.
The bottom line is: Real Republicans believe in limited government and that goes for social policy as well as economic policy. You can't have it both ways, motherfuckers.
Which leads me to:
Gay Marriage & Legal Pot on State Ballots
Face it, Republicans. You are on the wrong side of history with these two issues. Being opposed to gay marriage and legal pot runs against Republican ideas of liberty, self-determination and limited government. Is the GOP for or against state's rights?
Democrats reinforced their standing in Wisconsin by nominating a lesbian to the Senate thereby making that election more about gay rights and less about Obama v. Romney. In Colorado, the legal weed ballot measure helped to draw supporters to the polls. These issues aren't going to disappear. A growing majority of Americans do not see either of these things as evil or sinful. They see them as a part of their civil liberties.
Incorporating a position other than "Opposed" and resolving these issues once and for all will take them off the national agenda and make the majority who support them more comfortable electing a Republican in future elections.
Summer of Bain
Yeah. Romney can only blame himself and his staff for this fuck-up. For three months they let Team Obama trash Romney without response. By the time Team Romney decided to do anything about it, the false image of their candidate had already sunk into the psyche of most voters. This was hard to watch because it was so fucking preventable. It infuriated many in the party...
Ron Paul's Missing Endorsement
This hasn't been explored much yet but I wonder if there is a connection between Ron Paul's refusal to endorse Mitt Romney and the 2 million Republican voters who didn't show up at the polls. It could've been Ron Paul. Or anti-Mormon queasiness. Or maybe more self-identifying Independents are former Republicans than we realized. Just not sure yet.
Big Bird, Binders & Bayonets
Do I need to go here? These were easy for the Democrats to use as fodder against Romney in an attempt to discredit him for that first debate performance. It wasn't so much Big Bird himself as the image of Big Bird getting hurt, the phrase 'binders full of women', and the emptiness of the foreign policy debate that helped to make Romney look silly and small. Partisans didn't see it this way but it's easy to see how the average voter, knowing only about Seamus and Rafalca and missing tax returns and Swiss bank accounts, could get that idea in their head.
There's a lot more that can be discussed on this subject but I think these are the top reasons why Romney lost. If I can stomach it, maybe next week I'll talk about the top reasons why Obama didn't really win shit. The road ahead will have plenty of bumps and scrapes.
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