Many pundits since elecrion day have pointed out that the Republicans foolishly hitched their wagon to a single demographic group: older white (and of course straight) males--preferably not with a lot of education in subject such as Sociology or Ethnic Studies. As this group has been and, for the foreseeable future, shall remain a shrinking part of the electorate, it seems in hindsight unwise to have "fired up the base" by alienating Latinos and women. Republicans since Richard Nixon have made a living by trying to paint the Democratic Party as the refuge of poor blacks and clueless intellectuals, thereby scooping up the white South and working class. But they can ill afford to hand the Democrats large pluralities of the nation's young, women, and Latinos.
The problem facing Republicans, though, is that the party has become dominated by people who feel alienated by the same modern forces that are reworking the electorate. Sensible Republicans who want to remain competitive in national elections and in states such Nevada and Florida recognize that they must now move significantly to the left on questions such as immigration and women's rights--and eventually on gay and lesbian rights. But it is precisely these changes (a black man in the White House, women outnumbering men in a growing number of professions, Spanish speakers arriving in more and more local neighborhoods and schools, and gays and lesbians appearing in sit-coms and PTA meetings) that have motivated so many conservatives to become politically active, to "take back our country," as they often put it.
Those of us who embrace social and cultural diversity have a hard time not gloating at the fix the Republican Party finds itself in. We should remind ourselves that most people find change unsettling, and that in the 1960s the Republican Party also seemed to be hopelessly out of step and headed for the scrap heap of history.
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