When 90% of one class of people are voting for one party in a two-party government system, that's a pretty good sign that they are not in agreement with the direction of the other party. The day after the 2012 U.S. national election, states were still counting ballots, Mitt Romney had conceded defeat, and the Republican party has been left grasping at straws over the outcome of elections in the most populous states in America. Nine out of every ten African-Americans voted for the Democratic candidate for president in the 2012 presidential election, essentially "locking out"Republicans from any significant national victories, which would have led to a change in the current policy direction of the country. Looking back over the past two years of the grueling race for president, between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, core structural deficits in the Republican party give clues as to how Republicans can improve the chances for a Republican presidential victory in 2016. The outdated party model suggests that in order to change the direction of the country, that will mean radically transforming the Republican party of today from what it is now, into something truly different. These changes mean that the faces, and the money of the party, need to change as well. An increasing number of voters, who have come to our country over the past twenty five years, not only have embraced our Republican form of government, they have also embraced the notion that there can also be greater, and not less, democracy in the land of the free, and the home of the brave.
The essential outcome of the multi-billion dollar advertising "investment" in the 2012 U.S. national election means that the U.S. government retains the status quo of a divided Congress. Barack Obama is correct when he stated that he has a mandate to govern, and because of this, Republicans who will be traveling to Washington to deal with matters related to the annual budget, the "fiscal cliff", and the national debt, are going to have to shift their positions to the left, dragging the party kicking and screaming back to the center, where it was when Ronald Reagantook office. There has been far too much gridlock in Washington, D.C., and ultimately, higher income earners are going to have to be resigned to the fact that they are going to pay more in taxes. In fact, all Americans are going to be paying more in taxes each and every year for many years to come. Republicans in Congress right now are unable to move legislation through both chambers, and as such, must accept amendments from the Senate in order to pass that legislation. Businesses are going to pay more in taxes, there are going to be more federal regulations imposed upon the states and the people, and America is going to become a country that begins to shift it's energy system away from fossil fuels. The gridlock in Washington can come to an end if Republicans can seize the high ground, accepting some Democratic proposals, and embracing them wholeheartedly, so that some goodwill can be created for both sides, which could lead to a renaissance in Washington politics.
As the returns came in, in state after state, the results are slowly becoming very clear. Voters decided to give President Obama more time to allow his economic vision to take hold. Since the people have decided to do this, Republicans must be able to find common ground withDemocrats to move key pieces of labor and fiscal policy legislation through the Congress to stimulate economic activity. This will lead to more jobs for our people, and begin to reign in the ever increasing federal deficit.
Republicans did not help themselves by failing, as a party, to penalize the pro-life candidates that made irrational and unnecessary public comments about the right for American women to seek an abortion if they chose to do so. Roe v. Wade is the law of the land, and the battle over abortion was concluded almost 40 years ago. By allowing Democrats to paint all Republicans as the party that would force women to have back alley abortions if they ever needed one, the Republican party lost valuable support that it would need on Election Day. The Republican party had the ability to remove those candidates from the field, and replace them with individuals who had better communication skills; but they failed to do so. While Todd Akin's comments about rape were not the only political factor that led to the re-election of President Barack Obama, those comments had a direct impact on Senate races coast to coast. The Republican party cannot win the national vote on a Right to Life political campaign. The battle for the hearts and minds of America begins at home, and with the parents. If conservative individuals want to encourage their children to not have an abortion, then let that education be given by those parents to their kids. Republicans can no longer use abortion as a successful campaign issue; so, since it isn't working, it is time to abandon that strategy. Does that mean that Republicans need to become pro-choice? Not at all. It simply means that they should not be using it as a campaign issue any longer. Focusing your political party's attention on an issue, that you do not score well on with voters on, means that you wind up turning away more voters than you bring over to your side. The appropriate response from any Republican, when asked about a woman's right to obtain an abortion in the United States, is to simply say, "I respect a woman's right to choose what is best for her."
While unionized workers are a smaller component of the American electorate, they did influence the outcome of the election on the national level, in places where Republicans had to win in order to win the presidency. The Republican leadership has allowed the Democratic party to claim labor as a political resource to be used by their party alone. We are all Americans; and labor needs to have a significant place, not only within the Republican party leadership, but within the ranks of the entire party. Republicans need to become more pro-American, and less pro-business / anti-labor in order to change the dynamic of union politics in America today. Our labor unions made the United States the envy of the world following World War II, and while corruption can always be a problem in any organized labor movement, with the right people in charge, unions do more good, than bad, for the American worker. The 2012 election is a huge wake-up call to the Republican party in terms of labor relations with business, and signals that the American public is tired of business failing to bargain in good faith with the American worker. The federal government is going to need to do much more to return manufacturing jobs back to the United States, even if that means compelling companies to do so through punitive tax legislation. The American worker is crying out for relief, and in order to get our economy moving in the right direction, business owners are going to have to accept responsibility for our current economic conditions, and contribute as necessary, for however long it takes, to get our economy back on track. That means accepting more regulation, and higher taxes. The people have spoken, and now it is time to turn our attention to putting Americans back to work.
The 2012 U.S. presidential election signals a milestone in race relations and politics in American history. The American people have re-elected an African-American to the highest office in the land; a truly remarkable accomplishment for a nation that once placed African-Americans in chains as slaves. The servant has become the master, and now the Republican party's repudiation this election, by the voters, has reached a point where improving race relations within our political system has become the most important task for Republicans moving forward, in order to shift the political power in the U.S. from Democrats, and to Republicans. For the Republican party to do better among African-American and Latino voters, the party must become more African-American, and more Latino. While Republicans have brought more African-Americans and Latinos over to the party in the past few years, the pace is not matching the increasing U.S. population, and Republicans in the past four years made absolutely no impact on the voting patterns of either of those demographic groups. Republicans are going to have to field more African-American and Latino candidates than the Democrats if they have any hope of improving their chances in the next presidential election. Republicans best shot at the White House in 2016 will need to be either female or a minority, and the Republicans are going to have to find enough African-American and Latino congressional candidates that can convey their message of a limited government in order to create a major shift in the voting patterns of both African-Americans and Latino voters.
Here is your post-election scorecard:
- Nine out of ten African-Americans voted for the Democratic candidate
- A woman's right to choose kept females firmly in Democratic party hands
- Labor's solid support for Democrats was the key factor in major battleground states
- Republicans did not significantly improve their number with Latino voters
- The national vote totals show that Republicans must compromise to earn more goodwill with the American public
- By voting for practically the same general congressional makeup for the next Congress as we have in the current session, voters are forcing the hand of the Republicans, meaning that higher income earners and businesses must pay a great share of their income to support the federal government
I thought about what the election really means for our country, and the facts don't require much understanding of history in order to tell us what we need to do. The election shows that our country is divided, and if we do not work together to break down the intellectual, political, and social walls that divide us, we cannot stand as a nation. Our nation will either remain a country based upon laws, and become one America, or our nation will not continue to exist as a single nation. Since our laws and our politicians have created this divide, our laws and our politicians should and must also be changed to end the political divide that continues to this day.
I couldn't help but think of the line from Bob Marley's "One Love" in the wake of the 2012 U.S. presidential election:
"Let's get together and feel alright"
I want our country to be one America; not two. I want to see both of the major parties look like America so that everyone has a fair chance, and the person who wins their respective race wins on their ideas; and not the color of their skin. In order for the Republican party to become that party, the change must come from within. In the 2012 election, the country-club Republicans and the establishment lost any credibility they had with voters before the ballots were cast. Whatever faith that ordinary Republican voters had in the party leadership has wilted away, on this morning after the election, like the leaves falling from the trees. What is going to happen to the Republican party is not an implosion, but in fact, a rebirth, creating a new party that is more representative of this great country.
Comprehensive immigration reform must be an immediate priority for conservatives in the U.S.A. Republicans have not been able to seize the high ground with illegal immigrants specifically, and the Latino population as a whole, and their failure to craft, and move through Congress, comprehensive immigration reform was the final nail in the coffin for Republicans, in terms of their hopes to take back the White House and the U.S. Senate. Latino voters essentially punished the Republican party for "being too white". The days of "separate but equal" within the Republican party, for Republicans who are not white, are going to have to end if the Republicans are ever going to have a better chance to take back both the White House and the Senate. Republican ideas are not failing; Republicans just have not had the right people to voice them to the public, and Republicans have been intransigent in their desire to have no new taxes at all costs, regardless of the effect on workers, and the overall U.S. economy; not to mention issues related to foreign policy, energy production, and education. The Democrats have the control of the educational system, and the media in the United States. They have been able to do so because they made the effort to do it, and put their resources into it. So from the perspective of which party is reaching the electorate the best, the Democrats won the day.
Republicans are going to have to change their message, and the way that they deliver it. Democrats won the information war, because they have more assets at their disposal to deliver their message. That's right, Republicans didn't spend enough, didn't make enough visits, didn't make an effort in places where they were not liked. When you only preach to your own crowd, your congregation can never grow. The day after the election, the evidence is clear: Democrats won both the ground game, and the internet game. Phone banks don't work anymore; this election, as in 2008, was decided by those who used the internet to network and to do fundraising for their particular party, and candidate. If that means that Republican interests are going to need to gain control of more media outlets to get their message out, then so be it. However, having a message that will be delivered by the existing outlets is a much quicker way to win the information war. In order to get the media talking about what you are saying, you need to have the right people, and the right message, to make that happen. The Republicans in 2012 did not have the right message, and the people running for office were just as much of a factor in the defeat of Republicans, especially in the most important political races; those races being the contests for Senate seats and the presidency.
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