Matt Taibbi on Why the GOP Lost

[FreeThinker]

A last comment from me on the Erection... err, I mean Election: (although, for Chris Matthews, it might have been the Erection):

Matt Taibbi, writing in Rolling Stone

Modern Republicans "have so much of their own collective identity wrapped up in the belief that they're surrounded by free-loading, job-averse parasites who not only want to smoke weed and have recreational abortions all day long, but want hardworking white Christians like them to pay the tab," Taibbi wrote. "Their whole belief system...is inherently insulting to everyone outside the tent – and you can't win votes when you're calling people lazy, stoned moochers.":

[JamesSavik]

I'm thinking that people like Santorium and Bachmann telling potential voters that they are depraved perverts didn't help.

Statements like women don't get pregnant by legitimate rape or children of rape are a gift of God alienated anybody that wasn't a right to life fanatic.

The GOP did a great job of telling large numbers of voters to get lost. Probably enough to have made the difference in an election year with a weak economy and an even weaker incumbent.

[FreeThinker]

I agree with you, James. I supported Obama, but if there was a year tailor-made for a Republican landslide, it should have been this one. A weak economy (not completely Obama's fault, mind you) would ordinarily result in an incumbent being thrown to the dogs. The Republican primaries were notably free of heavyweights who could have given Obama a serious challenge- Jeb Bush, Chris Christie-- and the result, as each candidate imploded, the party was left with the one candidate none of them wanted. I think the rise of the right-wing media has led to the sharp polarization of the electorate and the dominance of the primaries by the more intense elements of the party. I think it will be very difficult in 2014 and 2016 for moderate, experienced, mature and sober-minded candidates in the Republican Party to thrive. As long as the right wing tells itself that their nominees are never conservative enough, then they are going to have to nominate a Rick Santorum or a Mike Huckabee and loose in a landslide to finally convince them that they can't win anymore by alienating absolutely everybody who isn't an old, pissed-off white guy.

[The Pecman]

If the moronic Repubs would just separate the political party from religion (and morality), they might actually have a chance. These sanctimonious poop-heads have really made a mess of things.

Me personally, I would've been very happy if voters had had two good choices in this or any other election. I still say we only had a choice between a mediocre candidate and a horrible candidate, and that's not much of an election. But I'm optimistic that maybe Obama can pull us out of this nosedive.

The political pundits are saying that younger (under 25) voters, Hispanic voters, and Black voters made a huge difference this time around. It's fair to say that Romney didn't connect with any of these groups. BTW, the anti-Obama ads were off-the-scale scary the weekend before the election, but they were very well-produced. They basically showed "ordinary" (i.e., non-wealthy) white people saying they had voted for Obama the first time around, but were hurt by the bad economy and wanted new people making the decisions. It was a very sobering series of commercials.

Note also that Obama has given a speech saying that he's very much aware that 47% of the country voted against him, and he claims he's going to do everything in his power to win this group of people over during the next four years. I hope to god he does that.