Time is not on the side of Republicans, according to a “back of the napkin” analysis published by Politico on Monday, which estimated that nearly 3 million GOP voters who supported Mitt Romney in 2012 will be dead before the 2016 presidential election…. “Since the average Republican is significantly older than the average Democrat, far more Republicans than Democrats have died since the 2012 elections,” Daniel McGraw wrote. “To make matters worse, the GOP is attracting fewer first-time voters. Unless the party is able to make inroads with new voters, or discover a fountain of youth, the GOP’s slow demographic slide will continue election to election.”…. While neither party would lose a particularly high number of voters in some battleground states, like Ohio and Virginia, Florida becomes a particularly crucial loss for Republicans under McGraw’s analysis. He speculating that 244,000 Romney voters would die by 2016, compared to 187,000 Obama voters.
So how does the party of old, angry, racist White males stay relevant when the oldest, angriest, and arguably most racist among them are rapidly dying off? When you have difficulty selling your message of hatred, anger, homophobia, and generalized intolerance to a younger demographic, what do you do? Do you allow your party to shrink to the point where people will eventually remember it as my generation does the John Birch Society?
Yeah, I remember the Republican Party and their motley collection of hater, homophobes, and religious zealots….
Or do you figure out how to appeal to a younger generation far more flexible and open-minded that your party has historically been? Being the political voice of an older, angrier, and Whiter demographic is only a recipe for success as long as that demographic is still ambulatory and possessed of a pulse. It appears the Grand OLD Party may well be dying on the vine…not that some of us will miss it much.
Truly understanding the story told by the numbers means drilling a bit deeper, of course, but at first glance it appears the GOP could potentially be in serious trouble, if not necessarily in 2016, then certainly during later election cycles. A convincing argument could be made that maintaining the popularity and relevance of a party whose existence is predicated on anger, hatred, and divisiveness will prove a serious challenge for the GOP’s leadership going forward. It’s difficult to sustain the hatred and rage that’s become the Republican brand and raison d’etre. When your legislative philosophy revolves around your demand for “small government”- government small enough to enforce your pet agenda, you’re something close to morally bankrupt. When you’re committed to dismantling the social safety net, disenfranchising women, the poor, and minorities, destroying Obamacare, and turning the LGBT community into second-class citizens with no legal rights, how do you sustain and nurture that over the long haul? I have no idea, and I’d wager that the GOP brain trust doesn’t, either.
It’s too early to be tap-dancing on anyone’s grave, but I have no issue with enjoying- nay, reveling in- the predicament Republicans find themselves in. It certainly seems that they’ve reached a place which allows me to simultaneously use my two favorite words to describe their demographic dilemma: karma and Schadenfreude. I must beg my gentle reader to pardon me while I enjoy this, perhaps a little bit too much.
Perhaps in the future, Republicans might give serious consideration to concepts like acceptance, inclusion, and tolerance. Unless, of course, they enjoy being the party of aging, angry White racists and homophobes.
