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Posted by on Nov 7, 2012 in Guest Contributor, Society, USA Presidential Election 2012 | 8 comments

Republican Party Brand Is in Tatters as the Changing Demographics Help President Obama Deliver a Romney Shellacking

The finger-pointing in the Republican Party has started and it’s about to hit a fever pitch with President Obama’s shellacking of Mitt Romney at the polls. Let me reiterate, President Obama won 303 Electoral College votes to Mitt Romney’s 206. The president also edged out Romney in the popular vote — 50% to 48%. The message the Republican Party should take from this is that it’s time to kick the lunatics out of the party and stop allowing people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter (who, by the way, accurately predicted Mitt Romney would lose), Donald Trump, John Sununu, Joe Arpaio, Bryan Fischer and other right wing extremists, to set the tone for their discourse. Mitt Romney allowed himself to be mired in the Republican race-baiting and extremism. In a word, positive is the new black. The beginning of a new era. Mr. Obama’s success speaks to the need for cooperation in Washington D.C. Trump tweeted that the “world is laughing at us.” Um, not really. It’s laughing at people like him for his idiocy. To put it succinctly, the Republican Party is too old, too white, too male and too extremist. Mitt Romney’s 1950s persona was a joke to the younger and more diverse American voters. The Republican Party is in dire straits.

Blacks and Latinos, with 93% and 73% margins, showed that what the Republican leaders in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, meant for bad, in terms of voter suppression, failed miserably. Nobody who wants to commit voter fraud stands in line for five or seven hours. So, the Republicans’ trick backfired and I hope the lesson that will be learned is glaring. Mitt Romney, who built his career on data, didn’t rely on that in this election, but on fomenting racial tensions, while Obama, who won on raw emotions in 2008, won with strong data in 2012. Latinos had some issues with President Obama, but they were terrified of Mitt Romney and his immigration stance (self-deportation) and embracing the controversial illegal immigration legislation passed in Arizona by Gov. Jan Brewer, for example. He also embraced Kris Kobach, who helped draft the controversial immigration legislation. The Republicans blocked every effort President Obama made to pass immigration reform, ultimately issuing an executive order to halt the deportation of young adults brought to this country by their parents when they were young. Call George W. Bush what ever you want, he recognized the importance of diversity. He won 44 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004. Four years later, John McCain took 31 percent of Hispanics. This year, Mitt Romney took only 27 percent.

Social issues can no longer be ignored by the Republican Party in exchange for self-righteousness. Paul Ryan promised the end of the Western world, in terms of Judeo-Christian values if President Obama won. Um, really? This was a desperate and disgraceful attack on the president and an insult to all Americans. The Mitt Romney who stood alone on the stage and delivered his concession speech was wonderful and if that was the Mitt Romney who ran for the presidency, the result could have been different. He took the high road and the Republican Party should learn from this and change its ways.

Republicans like Karl Rove, Dick Morris, Charles Krauthammer and websites like The Drudge Report and Breitbart dismissed the polls as false and denigrated Nate Silver, who was dead-on in his prediction that President Obama would win by big numbers. Intrade also bet that the president had a 70 percent chance of winning the election.  Matt Drudge and Michelle Malkin led the charge on the Internet painting President Obama as a foreigner, who was hellbent on destroying this country. Really? Wrong. The Republican Party destroyed this country and its brand by coddling wingnuts like them. NJ Gov. Chris Christie was openly mocked by some in the Republican Party, for his effusive praise of President Obama’s response to Superstorm Sandy. When did bipartisanship become a dirty word? Even News Corp. founder Rupert Murdoch slammed him for reaching across the aisle to help the people of his state who was devastated by the hurricane. Some are even laying the blame for Mitt Romney’s loss at his feet. SMH.

Mitt Romney isn’t without blame in the mess. He was nothing more than an out-of-touch plutocrat, who cared nothing about the least among us. How else can you explain his comment that 47 percent of Americans are deadbeats? He owned the decision to pick Paul Ryan as his running mate, saying that was one of the best decisions he made, next to marrying his wife. Um, Paul Ryan was a card-carrying member of a highly unpopular Congress. He was a part of the problem in the Washington gridlock. Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” comment was repudiated, but Richard Mourdouck’s “pregnancy from rape is from God” comment was embraced. Let’s not forget Ron Paul’s honest rape comment. These three lunatics should never have had a place in the party, much less to run for higher office. Let’s not forget some of Mitt Romney’s lines: “some of my best friends own NASCAR teams,””corporations are people” and that $10,000 wager he tried to make with Texas Gov. Rick Perry during a Republican presidential debate.

The problem is Mitt Romney’s campaign was about nothing that made a calculated risk to pander to the lunatics and extremists in the Republican Party. The outcome was decisive and the shellacking was deserved. All the dark money and Super PAC money that was meant to trick voters into distancing themselves from Obama for no other reason but hate, backfired. Sheldon Adelson and Karl Rove were the big funders of the negative ads and the millions they spent could have been better spent helping the poor in this country. But, they would rather foment hate and coddle nuts like Donald Trump with his birtherism nonsense. Problem-solving and bipartisanship should be embraced, not shunned. It’s a new day for America and the electorate has spoken. Good morning Mr. President.

This was the most popular tweet of all time:

Donald Trump’s tweets, idiocy we don’t need:

This was cross-posted from The Hinterland Gazette.