| George W. Bush has been an absolute failure as | | | | polls for the 2008 election: |
| President. He will likely go down in history as among | | | | Obama won the 18 to 24 age group 68% to 30% and |
| the very worst (if not the very worst) Presidents of all | | | | the 25 to 29 age group 69% to 29%. An entire |
| time. Partly because of his massive failure, he may | | | | generation of young people have been turned off to |
| very well be the last Republican President unless they | | | | the Republican party by George W. Bush. There's no |
| drastically redefine their party to get in touch with the | | | | reason to think that this trend will not continue with |
| shifting demographics of the United States of America. | | | | those who were too young to vote in this election. |
| Barack Obama handily defeated John McCain on | | | | McCain won the over 65 age group (the only age |
| November 4th bringing a new era to US politics. No | | | | group he won) 54% to 44%, for obvious reasons this |
| longer will America be considered to be the "slow" child | | | | is not an age group the GOP should want to build their |
| throwing a tantrum on the international scene. And no | | | | party around for the future. |
| longer will the divisive politics of Karl Rove be enough | | | | The social conservative controlled GOP is just way |
| to capture Presidential elections. | | | | too conservative socially for most young Americans. |
| It wasn't just McCain who got beaten by | | | | This indicates that the GOP will have to move |
| President-elect Obama on the 4th, it was the entire | | | | significantly to the left on social issues to remain a |
| neo-con/social conservative Republican strategy. | | | | major party. Right now it seems that they are unlikely |
| And as bad as 2008 was for the Republicans, 2012 | | | | to make that move because they are too afraid fo |
| should be even worse if they do not redefine their | | | | angering their base. |
| party in a major way in the next four years. | | | | According to the exit polling, Obama won the black |
| Right now the Republican party is the party of | | | | vote 96% to 3%, the Latino vote 67% to 30%, and the |
| uneducated rural white people, the super rich, and | | | | Asian vote 63% to 34%. Yes McCain won the white |
| social conservatives (sometimes these categorizations | | | | vote. Why is this such a bad situation for the GOP? |
| can overlap.) Besides these three groups the | | | | Because they are becoming a "whites only" party and |
| Republicans have almost no appeal. | | | | white people are becoming a smaller and smaller part |
| The important thing to note for the Republican's future | | | | of the overall electorate with each election. It should be |
| is that all of these groups are shrinking. They weren't | | | | clear how that equals big problems for the |
| enough to win (or even get close to winning) in 2008 | | | | Republicans. |
| and there will be even less of them in '12 so unless | | | | So unless the Republicans can find a way to appeal to |
| they can figure out how to appeal to a new audience | | | | social liberals and to minorities (and there a lot of |
| (and they are unlikely to be able to do that without | | | | overlap there as well) they are destined to become a |
| angering their current fringe "base") they will lose again | | | | regional party and will not have any real chance at |
| probably by an even wider margin. | | | | winning the Presidency again. |
| What's the evidence for my thesis? Look at the exit | | | | |