Republicans Were Shocked By the Results Because They Don't Understand America

[Doctor Jack]

I hate the republican excuse about why they lost. "Too many women and minorities turned out", "there were too many college students voting", or "we underestimated the Hispanic vote". Yeah, that is the make up of the United States now. Sure if only white men voted, Romney would have won in a landslide but in that case, you are ignoring about 75% of the country. That is the major flaw in the republican thinking. They believe that the U.S. is the same place that it was in 1955. These "fringe groups", like Blacks, Latinos, homosexuals, unmarried women, college students, are actually significant portion of the U.S. population now. Pretending they don't exist won't make them any less relevant or real. I think republicans are so insulated in their Fox News and Rush Limbaugh bubbles, that they don't realize that most of this country isn't made up of white Christians anymore. They are shocked by all of the "minorities" that turned out but they don't understand that they aren't minorities anymore. There aren't just a few African Americans, Hispanics, and college student/college educated people in this country. This is our country now. It isn't that we are turning out in extreme numbers and overwhelming the white vote, or as some people believe, voting many, many times. Its just that we are showing up and voting. Simply existing is overwhelming the republican vote. They can close their eyes and pretend that everything is as it once was but they are just going to keep getting shocked by the results of elections.

[MynameisBlarney]

1. Everything you just said

is 100% true.

[avebury]

14. And then some. nt

[jaseycake]

2. yup.

you get these voters who have never been more than one or two counties away from where they were born and when they watch voting going on in new york city or san francisco on the television, they see it as a completely foreign concept. it seems weird to them that there is a diversity besides just "families voting what papa says to vote" to the point where they seek confirmation bias in the crazy skews by rush, sean, et al.

[aletier_v]

3. I'd argue that WASPs would still have power

if they'd paid out salaries in proportion to the real economic growth.

You could argue back that they hoarded most income gains for the past 30 years
because many of their workers were minorities and women but still
the old Capitalists knew that you gained broad-based support
by cutting everyone in on the gains.

Even the Mafia understands that.

[stopwastingmymoney]

18. Excellent

[Doctor Jack]

4. You see Dick Morris Say

"We didn't expect turnout to be like 2008". Why the fuck not? The turn out in 2008 wasn't a fluke. Obama's coalition in 2008 didn't just disappear after they voted. It represented the new face of America and once that is going to keep moving in that direction.

Now of course that isn't to say white people don't matter. I'm a married white male (although i am not religious, at all) and I don't feel like there is some hostile force taking over this country and that it is a threat to me. What I see is that things are becoming more inclusive and more people matter than just what white Christians. Everyone is equal. White people matter, just like Blacks, and Hispanics, and Asians, and Muslims and Jews and Gays and Straights. Its all inclusive, we're all equal. That is what I think the Republicans fail to understand. This is just how it is now.

[Firebirds01]

5. Well said

+1

[DollarBillHines]

6. Evidently, demographics are an illusion. As shitheel Lindsay Graham said to Jonathan Martin...

“if we lose this election there is only one explanation — demographics."

No shit, Lindsay.

[HooptieWagon]

7. Bravo! I was trying to formulate a post of the same outline...

but I think you said it far better than I could have.

[Downtown Hound]

8. That, and their extreme ability to ignore reality and replace it with things more to their liking

Pretty much every poll except for Rasputin and Gallup had Obama leading both the electoral vote and the popular vote prior to election day. I'll admit I was afraid of a repeat of 2004 in Ohio but it was pretty obvious that in any kind of fair election, Obama was going to win.

Only the freepers and teabaggers could delude themselves so convincingly to believe otherwise. The election outcome is no surprise to anybody that doesn't have their head shoved completely up their ass.

[Doctor Jack]

9. I was on the Free Republic the day before the election

Most of them firmly believed that a double digit popular vote win for Romney was coming. Some thought it would be as high as 20 points and that the map would like a lot like 1984.

This is what happens when you only listen to right wing AM radio. They are just going to tell you what you want to hear and not what is actually going on.

[Downtown Hound]

25. Yeah, I read one thread over there in which some prominent Repuke said Pennsylvania

was going to go red during the early hours of Tuesday. The freepers practically shit themselves with excitement. They didn't even bother waiting for early returns or exit polls to come in. They just listened to Mr. Prophet speak his garbage, and they fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

One Republican blowhard spouting garbage with no evidence and no facts, and that was all the freepers needed to discard months of polling data stating that PA was solidly blue.

[corkhead]

10. Mara *LIE*-ason on NPR this morning basically said

They (meaning dems) put gay marriage and Marijuana on the ballots to get the gays and potheads to come out to vote, so they won.

[Doctor Jack]

13. Keep dismissing the people of this country

And you keep losing elections.

(not you, the person on NPR)

[daggahead]

11. They also believe everybody ...

... wants to start a small business and become a billionaire.

They do not understand people, let alone the entire country.

[We People]

19. Sooo true - they believe that everyone thinks the same way they do

especially about that! I've heard that from so many Republicans. Maybe because a lot of them want to have all the power in a work situation
OR they don't like to be told what to do
OR they don't like being in work situations where they would have peers/equals
OR they really don't get along with other people unless they always call the shots (restatement of the first idea).

[savebigbird]

12. Lookie Here

"Too many women and minorities turned out", "there were too many college students voting."

I'll parse that down. Here is what they are really saying:

"There are too many women and minorities." "There are too many college students."

[DCKit]

28. Sheesh, that makes them sound racist and sexist.

They've told me "personally" that they're not.

Don't be a hater Even if we know better.

[Jennicut]

15. They were fooled by 2010.

If the coalition that voted last night and in 2008 shows up in midterms we would do fantastic. We need to come up with a way to drive voter turnout up in midterms. We did it in 2006. It was D+2 then. D+7 in '08 and D+6 in '12.

[ffr]

16. Conservative (def)

One having traditional values.

So yes, they'll prefer reliving 1955 every year until they finally win.

[Doctor Jack]

17. I bet they try more of their faux diversity crap

They will put some Hispanic member of their party front and center for every event to prove that they "get it". Just like when Palin was the VP candidate and they all pretended they were the true feminists of the country. Strange how that died out as soon as the election ended.

[Snarkoleptic]

20. I was shocked by your massively chunky paragraph, which is nearly unreadable (at least on my laptop)

[CTDem44]

21. Politico Main Story

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/83549.html?hp=f1

“We didn’t think they’d turn out more of their base vote than they did in 2008, but they smoked us,” said one Romney operative. “It’s unbelievable that that they turned out more from the African-American community than in 2008. Somehow they got ‘em to vote.”

-----------------

My, my, my, would you look at the loaded/coded statements there.

[krawhitham]

22. or MATH

[Midwestern Democrat]

23. The GOP's mindset seems to be frozen in time circa 1988. They mastered the electorate that existed

at that time and do not seem to have fully grasped that the electorate has changed substantially over the last 24 years. They're basically using the same playbook they were using in 1988 but it's not 1988 anymore.

[Cha]

24. That's just whining... they had their War On Women..that was REAL

They Dissed African Americans every chance they got.. anyone remember romney at the NAACP? mitt's "Self Deportation"? AZ's treatment of Hispanics? they totally ignored them like the 47%ers..and Yet they expected their votes.

And, now come THE WHINING with Cheeze.

[kwolf68]

26. I think WE Democrats also must admit

That our numbers with blacks and latinos is not sustainable to the numbers showed in this election.

Both demographics (black, Latino) have positions that are ostensibly conservative just like white people. And in time I do believe both demographics will spread out somewhat. Sure, I AA and Latinos will continue to support Democratic policies in stronger numbers, but the numbers seen this election are likely not to be repeated.

To combat this inevitable shift I think we need to court the religious community a bit more (I am not religious, but there are reasons for a religious person to be part of this party, though we should always be against theocracy) and also grab hold of 'free enterprise' system economic theory in that we support that system and want government to promote competition, access to information, level playing field and cost internalization and let the Republicans become the party of crony capitalism. I also think we need to stop it with the anti old-white guy rhetoric. Some on here sound like buffoons when 'older white men' are mocked and then we fawn all over Bill Clinton after one of his amazing speeches.

Lets put the Republicans out of business as a majority party, it can be done.

[Norrin Radd]

29. +1

[DCKit]

27. You ain't wrong. Like you, I celebrate our diversity. nt

[Alekei_Firebird]

30. Republicans think women are minorities. That's their problem in a nutshell.

They actually think that a demographic that makes up more than half the country is less important than themselves: older white guys.