The chorus of Republicans agonizing over the results Tuesday – a re-elected Democratic president, all the Democratic incumbent senators re-elected, the loss of two seats in the Senate and up to eight in the House – reveal for all to see a party that is floundering in the confusion of an emerging world it doesn’t understand.
The GOP lost the unmarried women’s vote 68% to 30%. Overall, their “gender gap” was almost 12%. With women comprising 51% of the country, and a larger part of the electorate, that’s no way to win a national election. The gap with Latino voters was even worse. While they accounted for 10% of all voters, Romney only got 29% of their vote. Almost 75% of Asians went for President Obama. All voters under the age of 44 gave a majority of their votes to the President, who also maintained his margin of 93% among African-Americans.
We all learned in this election season that Republicans often have a difficult time with arithmetic. Nothing shows that more than the fact that they assumed the electorate in 2012 would be 78% white. It turned out to be 72%.
Republicans have lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections. Simply muffling the voices of the crazies in their party like Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock won’t change the fact that almost 90% of the Republican members of Congress are older, white males who seem tone deaf to the concerns of the changing demographics of the nation. Republicans have spent decades using fear, prejudice and voter suppression to get their candidates elected. The time has come for them to return to responsible conservatism and end their foray on the dark side.
As for my party, the Democratic Party, we have to find a way to engage our voters in every election, not just once every four years. When turnout is high, Democrats win. When some of us stay home, we lose. That problem needs to be faced in Virginia right away. 2013 is closing in fast.
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