imperfect.la
Warlord
2008 was surely a horrible year for the GOP as many of you already know. Losing the presidency, horrible losses in the House and Senate, the Republican "brand" is now severely tarnished.
In theory, the Republicans can still come back. Thought it seems unimaginable at the time, with Obama being probably the most exciting president since Reagan, while George W. Bush is the most hated man in the world, as time goes on Obama's popularity will decline and people will start to forget about W. The Republicans have been damaged worse than this earlier in our history so it's not going to be a surprise if the GOP will show signs of resurgence.
The ruling party inevitable faces disillusionment, and it's a consistent trend that the presiding party starts to lose popularity after its peak. At the moment, current opinion polling shows that the Republicans are scheduled to lose even more senate and house seats in 2010, though I feel it's too early to make any reasonable predictions.
Has the Republican party imploded? In a way, yes. The Reagan coalition has been broken. The coalition between religious conservatives and free market entrepreneurs is severely strained and the Dems are making major inroads with the evangelicals. The American public has rejected hawkish foreign policy and now believes Bush is to blame for the economic crisis. However, this isn't a big deal: the party has gone through much worse times. Eventually, the GOP will recover.. or will it?
The biggest threat to the GOP isn't Obama, Pelosi, or Al Franken. It's demographics. If the demographic trends of 2000 were the same as they were in 2008, McCain would have been president [source needed].
The United States, in the past solidly a white nation, is slowly but surely becoming multicultural. In our lifetimes we will see whites cease to be a majority in the United States.
This is good for the Democrats, who have in recent history made great inroads with minority communities. The party has always been targeted towards the working classes and it was only a matter of time until it took away the black vote from the Republicans, not to mention almost every other minority group aside from Cuban exiles.
The Republican approach to minority politics has always been through social issues, as many minorities hold reactionary views that fit with the Republican mold. However, one big problem for the Republicans is that minorities happen to hate white people and wealthy people in general, something that the GOP has always been known for.
Can the GOP rebrand? How can Republicans win more minority voters? If it can't, the GOP as we know it is going to cease to exist anymore.
There is some hope on the horizon for the Republicans, namely in politicians like Joseph Cao and Bobby Jindal. I can see the Republican coalition work aggressively to absorb the growing Asian and East Indian communities, which would fit in with many of the GOP core work-ethic and social beliefs.
However, would a such a coalition ever be able to overcome the growing communities of black, and more namely, latino voting groups that are almost locked up for the Democrats?
In theory, the Republicans can still come back. Thought it seems unimaginable at the time, with Obama being probably the most exciting president since Reagan, while George W. Bush is the most hated man in the world, as time goes on Obama's popularity will decline and people will start to forget about W. The Republicans have been damaged worse than this earlier in our history so it's not going to be a surprise if the GOP will show signs of resurgence.
The ruling party inevitable faces disillusionment, and it's a consistent trend that the presiding party starts to lose popularity after its peak. At the moment, current opinion polling shows that the Republicans are scheduled to lose even more senate and house seats in 2010, though I feel it's too early to make any reasonable predictions.
Has the Republican party imploded? In a way, yes. The Reagan coalition has been broken. The coalition between religious conservatives and free market entrepreneurs is severely strained and the Dems are making major inroads with the evangelicals. The American public has rejected hawkish foreign policy and now believes Bush is to blame for the economic crisis. However, this isn't a big deal: the party has gone through much worse times. Eventually, the GOP will recover.. or will it?
The biggest threat to the GOP isn't Obama, Pelosi, or Al Franken. It's demographics. If the demographic trends of 2000 were the same as they were in 2008, McCain would have been president [source needed].
The United States, in the past solidly a white nation, is slowly but surely becoming multicultural. In our lifetimes we will see whites cease to be a majority in the United States.
This is good for the Democrats, who have in recent history made great inroads with minority communities. The party has always been targeted towards the working classes and it was only a matter of time until it took away the black vote from the Republicans, not to mention almost every other minority group aside from Cuban exiles.
The Republican approach to minority politics has always been through social issues, as many minorities hold reactionary views that fit with the Republican mold. However, one big problem for the Republicans is that minorities happen to hate white people and wealthy people in general, something that the GOP has always been known for.
Can the GOP rebrand? How can Republicans win more minority voters? If it can't, the GOP as we know it is going to cease to exist anymore.
There is some hope on the horizon for the Republicans, namely in politicians like Joseph Cao and Bobby Jindal. I can see the Republican coalition work aggressively to absorb the growing Asian and East Indian communities, which would fit in with many of the GOP core work-ethic and social beliefs.
However, would a such a coalition ever be able to overcome the growing communities of black, and more namely, latino voting groups that are almost locked up for the Democrats?
