"Republicans ponder party’s future course" by Christopher Rowland | Globe Staff, November 08, 2012
Republican time to ruminate on what has gone wrong....
The Republican Party’s aching hangover after Tuesday’s defeat of presidential nominee Mitt Romney and failure to capture the Senate has spurred a round of existential introspection and debate about the future of the party.
On immigration, abortion, and even tax policy, some Republicans worry, the party is losing touch with the mainstream of the US electorate.
It's not just Republicans; Democrats are just as much captive to corporate intere$t$ and the Zionist lobby.
They don’t suggest dropping opposition to high taxes, for instance, or opening up Planned Parenthood clinics on every corner, but they see a need to bend on some issues to broaden the party’s appeal and solve problems. On illegal immigration, they advocate for strong borders and enforcement but say paths to citizenship should be created and that Hispanics should not be subjected to Arizona-style crackdowns.
Others, however, suggest the party and its conservative orthodoxy are just fine, that Romney himself was the party’s problem in this election....
I didn't vote for him.
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"GOP must adapt to ever-changing US demographics" by Brian C. Mooney | Globe Staff, November 08, 2012
Underlying Mitt Romney’s defeat Tuesday in the presidential election are some unsettling demographic trends for the Grand Old Party, whose base of support continues to be the nation’s declining white population.
I find it amazing that the same mouthpiece media which decries division then spends so much time dividing us along race and gender lines.
President Obama’s campaign exploited the incremental increases in Latinos, Asian-Americans, and voters under the age of 30 to consolidate most of the gains made in the Democratic Party’s electoral expansion four years ago.
“There’s no arguing with the demographic changes — they’re clear,” said Scott Keeter, director of survey research at the Pew Research Center and an exit poll analyst for NBC. “Any way you cut it, white non-Hispanics are going to become an ever decreasing share of the US population. In some respects, the Electoral College magnifies that impact, because a number of key states a candidate needs to amass an electoral majority are already ahead of the national average of the percentage of nonwhites.”
William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan think tank, attributed Romney’s defeat to his party’s inattention to Latinos, a record 10 percent of Tuesday’s electorate. They voted for Obama, 71 percent to 27 percent, according to exit polls.
“It seems to me that the Republican Party could have easily won that election,’’ Frey said. “They should at least pay attention to the concerns of Hispanics.”
Many Republican Party policies could appeal to Hispanics, such as tax breaks for small businesses and family issues, Frey said.
“But if you completely slough it off and talk about deporting people, you’re throwing it in people’s faces,” he said.
Republicans have won the white vote in every presidential election since 1964, and that continued Tuesday with Romney beating Obama by 20 points, 59 percent to 39 percent, according to exit polls. But the percentage of white voters was 72 percent, down from 74 percent in 2008. It has dropped in all but one of the nine elections since 1976, when it was 89 percent.
At the same time, Obama won 80 percent of the minority vote, which, besides Latinos, included African Americans, 13 percent of turnout, the same as 2008, and Asian-Americans, who were 3 percent of the vote, up a point from the last election.
The political fallout of this was clear: Although Romney narrowly lost the popular vote, he was decisively defeated in the Electoral College, as Colorado and Nevada, almost always reliably Republican for the past four decades, went Democratic for the second straight election.
Think Mitt would have stood up to Israel's latest aggression?
They join Virginia and North Carolina as newly winnable states for Democrats. Both have large black populations, along with a large population of transplants from other parts of the country. Obama won Virginia for the second time Tuesday but narrowly lost North Carolina, which he barely carried in 2008.
These are merely the latest manifestations of gradual demographic trends....
One problem for Republicans is the very white public face of the party, said Clara Rodriguez, professor of sociology at Fordham University. Latinos and other minorities also care about jobs and housing, and some embrace the Republican belief in limited government, she said. But they do not see a welcoming presence at party events....
Compounding problems for the GOP is the distinct tilt of voters under the age of 30 toward the Democrats in recent years.
Rodriguez and Frey both said the so-called millenials, who are ages 18 to 29, are products of a much more racially and culturally diverse society than their parents, and it is reflected in their voting propensities.
Amazing how those young kids never showed up until now, huh? And they didn't even vote for Ron Paul after showing up at his rallies.
“They grew up past the Reagan era, in the 1990s, when Clinton was president,’’ Frey said.
Some don't even remember much of those days. Some only know Bush.
“More liberal issues were coming to the fore and the climate was more racially and ethnically diverse and they tend to be more tolerant on issues like mixed-racial marriage or gay rights. It is something that makes them more liberal and Democratic leaning.”
“The fact that the turnout was no lower than four years ago is pretty significant, especially given the fact that a lot of observers, including myself, predicted that the youth turnout would be down this year” because of the effects of the economy on their employment prospects, Keeter said.
“I think a lot of people thought it was all about Obama in 2008, but that’s not really true. I think he was able to take advantage of a trend that was already there and even intensify it.”
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"Obama’s strong show among Hispanics concerns GOP" by Nicholas Riccardi | Associated Press, November 09, 2012
DENVER — According to initial exit polls, Republican Mitt Romney, who backed hard-line immigration measures, came away with 27 percent Hispanic support, less than any presidential candidate in 16 years. It also was a sharp drop from the 44 percent claimed by President George W. Bush in his 2004 reelection after he embraced immigration reform....
Al Cardenas, chairman of the American Conservative Union, said Hispanics were only a large part of a worrisome trend in the electorate, which is increasingly composed of younger and minority voters who traditionally do not back Republicans....
One of the big surprises was Obama’s strength in Florida’s Cuban-American community, traditionally a Republican redoubt....
Related: Why Obama Loses Florida
The Cubans crossed over and disrupted the calculus.
Matt Schlapp, who was political director of George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign, drew parallels between the GOP’s standing with Hispanics and the party’s troubles with African-Americans, who now routinely back Democrats by 9-1 ratios. ‘‘The idea that we would somehow copy that with the Hispanic community is troubling,’’ he said.
Hispanics have long favored Democrats. But they have been trending even more sharply toward that party since Republicans stymied Bush’s immigration proposal and favored hard-line immigration measures that critics decried as racially motivated.
Romney tapped an author of Arizona’s controversial immigration law to advise him during the primaries and called for ‘‘self-deportation.’’ Obama, meanwhile, announced in June that immigration authorities would grant work permits to people brought here illegally as children who graduated high school or served in the military. The directive energized a Hispanic electorate that had been disappointed by Obama’s inability to overhaul the immigration system.
Interviews with voters as they left their polling places this week found that Hispanics gave Obama his winning margin in Colorado, Nevada, and Virginia. They also account for his narrow lead in Florida, where votes were still being counted Thursday.
Even before the races were called, some Republicans took to the airwaves and social media to call on the party to pull back from its hard-line stance and embrace certain immigration reforms.
Why is there an assumption that minority voters are monolithic and one issue voters? The AmeriKan does the same with women and abortion.
It’s unclear whether the results would change the party’s opposition. In a conversation with the Des Moines Register last month, Obama predicted that GOP opposition could crumble after Hispanics delivered the White House to him. The conversation was initially off the record but later published with Obama’s consent.
‘‘And since this is off the record, I will just be very blunt,’’ Obama said. ‘‘Should I win a second term, a big reason I will win a second term is because the Republican nominee and the Republican Party have so alienated the fastest-growing demographic group in the country, the Latino community.’’
On Wednesday, Senate majority leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said he would introduce immigration legislation next year and that Republicans would reject it ‘‘at their peril.’’
Opponents of an immigration deal warned that Republicans should not take the Democrats’ bait. Steve Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies noted that Hispanics have reliably backed Democrats for decades, even after Reagan signed an immigration amnesty law in 1986 that gave many of them legal status.
Those new American citizens, Camarota said, turned into Democrats.
Camarota and other supporters of immigration restrictions contend that Hispanics lean Democratic because they favor government social programs and higher taxes on the wealthy. The GOP changed the national electorate through the 1986 law ‘‘and now they have to move with the electorate,’’ he said.
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"Asian-Americans backed Obama overwhelmingly; Support by 73% surpasses that of Latinos, womem" by Callum Borchers and Alan Wirzbicki | Globe Correspondent and Globe Staff, November 09, 2012
Asian-American voters backed President Obama more strongly than either women or Latinos, two groups widely credited with his reelection.
UPDATE: Obama’s reelection support from gays called decisive
Yeah, don't leave them out!
Obama’s national health care law and balanced approach to deficit reduction, coupled with Republican Mitt Romney’s hard-line stance on immigration and harsh rhetoric aimed at China, pushed Asian-American support for Obama to new heights, analysts and polls suggest.
Really?
Exit polling by The New York Times showed Asian-Americans voted for Obama over Romney 73 percent to 26 percent, after backing him against John McCain 62 to 35.
I'm amazed that the only time exit polls were wrong was in 2004.
The final result aligned closely with a survey taken on the eve of Election Day by the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development, which also showed 60 percent support for government-guaranteed access to health insurance, much higher than the overall electorate.
“A lot of Asian-Americans come from places with subsidized health care, where that’s an expectation, and it’s an important issue for them,” said Lisa Hasegawa, the coalition’s executive director....
Yes, Americans, the rest of the world is so ahead of us.
When a candidate attacks China as an economic cheater, as Romney did in the campaign, it raises fears among many Asian-Americans.
“There’s a lot of blowback on the people who live here,” he said....
Implying we are all a bunch of racists here. Well, if you read my posts on China you would know I don't blame them for having a government that looks out for it's national economic interests. In fact, I'm envious of them.
“Of all the different groups you break voters into, Asian-Americans are second only to African-Americans and blacks in their support for Obama,” said Paul Watanabe, director of the Institute for Asian-American Studies at UMass-Boston.
Women represent a slight majority of the electorate, and one in 10 voters are now Latino, an all-time high. The size of these voting blocs makes them favorite targets for both parties, who in this election poured millions of dollars into ads attempting to woo their members.
Asian-Americans — who are 3.4 percent of the electorate, up from 2.7 percent in 2008 — received far less attention on the airwaves, yet they voted overwhelmingly for Democrats....
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After years of frustration, immigration reform advocates believe the stars have aligned since Tuesday’s election to give them the best shot in years at bringing millions of illegal immigrants out of the shadows and fixing an immigration system widely seen as inadequate for the modern economy.
Related: Lazy American Kids
Somehow I get the feeling things will never be fixed.
President Obama’s victory, fueled by massive support among Latino voters, has produced a new dynamic in Washington: a Democratic president who owes a huge debt to Latinos, and a Republican Party desperate to find a way to avoid another landslide loss among one of the fastest-growing sections of the electorate....
Those voters are, by definition, not illegal immigrants. But....
They support amnesty, etc, etc. Yup, they did it the hard way but I'm sure they support a free pass for all the others.
Politically, Republicans may have backed themselves into a no-win situation. They could dig in and continue to obstruct immigration reform, and risk further alienating Latinos. Or they could embrace reform, which would give Obama a huge victory, allowing him to deliver on his promise and perhaps bolster the Democrats’ standing among Latinos still further. Many Republicans also fear that many of the new citizens created by a reform law would vote Democratic.
The political dividends of the immigration issue have not been lost on Democrats. In a pre-election interview with the Des Moines Register, which was initially off the record but later released, Obama credited the GOP’s opposition to immigration reform as a factor giving him an edge in the election....
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UPDATES:
"House to consider limited GOP immigration bill" by Jim Abrams | Associated Press, November 24, 2012
WASHINGTON — House Republicans still smarting from their poor showing among Hispanics in the presidential election are planning a vote next week on immigration legislation that would both expand visas for foreign science and technology students and make it easier for those with green cards to bring their immediate families to the United States.
Republican leaders made it clear after the election that the party was ready to get serious about overhauling the nation’s dysfunctional immigration system, a top priority for Hispanic communities. Taking up what is called the STEM — standing for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — Jobs Act during the lame-duck session could be seen as a first step in that direction....
An immigration policy lobbyist who advocates for groups such as American Families United, Morrison called the bill a steppingstone to more comprehensive immigration reform....
The measure, strongly backed by US high-tech companies, would give 55,000 green cards a year to doctoral and masters graduates in the STEM fields, and make it easier for people trained in the United States to put their skills to work for American companies rather than non-American competitors.
But Crystal Williams, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said she doubted it will make much progress in the Senate....
Then this is all really just a waste of time, isn't it?
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GOP senators offer immigration compromise
Though the proposal will most likely be dismissed by some in the Republican camp for offering amnesty to illegal immigrants, a senior Democratic aide, who is not authorized to speak publicly about still-evolving legislation, suggested that the retiring Republicans should be given little credit for advancing the idea on the eve of their departure from the Senate.
‘‘It’s not exactly a profile in courage for two senators — who happen to turn into pumpkins in about a month — to weigh in on a bill that’s been around for a decade and that they’ve opposed for nearly as long,’’ he said. ‘‘It’ll be interesting to see if members of their party will be willing to continue the conversation they’ve waited far too long to start.’’
Related: Racial divide expected to persist in US
A little closer to home:
"In defeat, state GOP wrangles over the future" by Stephanie Ebbert | Globe Staff, November 12, 2012
Amid soul-searching over their Election Day losses, Massachusetts Republicans face an immediate internecine battle over the direction of their party as they consider whether to adopt the conservative agenda that their national party embraced at the convention.
Massachusetts Republicans are already agonizing over the party’s future, having watched the gains of recent years slip away last Tuesday, when presidential nominee Mitt Romney, prized US Senator Scott Brown, and a promising candidate for Congress, Richard R. Tisei, all went down to defeat.
That last one is an embarrassment.
Related: Tisei Leading Tierney
Yup, the voters of the district allegedly chose a corrupt piece of Democratic scum over a good, decent, Republican.
Four of the seats Republicans had claimed in the Legislature in 2010 were reclaimed by Democrats....
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Related: MSM Monitor Left Feeling Blue About Massachusetts
Not feeling that way this time, folks, because I expected as much -- although I did write in Nader for president.
Also see: Blueneck Massachusetts
Now for the rednecks:
"There’s a new superpower growing in the Great Plains and the South, where bulging Republican majorities in state capitols could dramatically cut taxes and change public education with barely a whimper of resistance from Democrats.
Contrast that with California, where voters have given Democrats a new dominance that could allow them to raise taxes and embrace same-sex marriage without regard to Republican objections.
If you thought the presidential election revealed the nation’s political rifts, consider the outcomes in state legislatures....
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