Was This Election The Beginning of The End of The Republican Party.

[BigLouie]

Just found this AP story.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — If the future happens first in California, the Republican Party has a problem.

The nation's most populous state — home to 1 in 8 Americans — has entered a period of Democratic political control so far-reaching that the dwindling number of Republicans in the Legislature are in danger of becoming mere spectators at the statehouse.

Democrats hold the governorship and every other statewide office. They gained even more ground in Tuesday's elections, picking up at least three congressional seats while votes continue to be counted in two other tight races — in one upset, Democrat Raul Ruiz, a Harvard-educated physician who mobilized a district's growing swath of Hispanic voters, pushed out longtime Republican Rep. Mary Bono Mack.

The party also secured a supermajority in one, and possibly both, chambers in the Legislature.

"Republican leaders should look at California and shudder," says Steve Schmidt, who managed John McCain's 2008 campaign and anchored former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-election team in 2006. "The two-party system has collapsed."

Republican voter registration has dipped so low — less than 30 percent — that the party's future state candidates will be hobbled from the start.

Republicans searching for a new direction after Mitt Romney's defeat will inevitably examine why President Barack Obama rolled up more than 70 percent of the Hispanic and Asian vote, and 9 of 10 votes among blacks, essential ingredients in his victory. Women also supported Obama over Romney nationally and in California, where they broke for the president by 27 percentage points.

There is no better place to witness how demographic shifts have shaped elections than in California, the home turf of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan that just a generation ago was a reliably Republican state in presidential contests.

A surge in immigrants transformed the state, and its voting patterns. The number of Hispanics, blacks and Asians combined has outnumbered whites since 1998 in California, and by 2020 the Hispanic population alone is expected to top that of whites. With Latinos, for example, voter surveys show they've overwhelmingly favored Democratic presidential candidates for decades. Similar shifts are taking place across the nation.

"There are demographic changes in the American electorate that we saw significantly, first, here in California and Republicans nationally are not reacting to them," said Jim Brulte, a former Republican leader in the California Senate.

"Romney overwhelmingly carried the white vote — 20 years ago, that would have meant an electoral landslide. Instead, he lost by 2 million votes" in the state, Brulte said.

Perhaps no part of the state better illustrates how Republicans surrendered ground than in Orange County, once a largely white, GOP bastion where Nixon's seaside home became known as the Western White House.

Today, whites make up a little more than 40 percent of the population, while 2 in 10 residents are Asian and about 1 in 3 is Hispanic, according to the census.

In 1980, Jimmy Carter managed to collect about a quarter of the vote against Reagan in the county. But by 1996, with the county diversifying, Bill Clinton grabbed 38 percent of the vote, and Al Gore boosted that to 40 percent in 2000. This year, Obama won 44 percent of the vote in Orange County, according to preliminary returns.

Romney "implemented a winning election strategy for 1980," University of Southern California professor Patrick James said in a statement issued by the school. "If you look at the demographics and voting proportions, the Reagan coalition would not win a majority today."

Celeste Greig, president of the conservative California Republican Assembly, said in an email to supporters Friday that the party was in need of a makeover, emphasizing Main Street over Wall Street.

"We have to admit that as a party in California, we're just plain disorganized," she wrote.

Romney bypassed California this year, waging his fight in battlegrounds such as Ohio and Florida. In claiming the biggest electoral prize in America, California's 55 electoral votes, Obama rolled up a nearly 21 percent margin. Voters also returned Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein to Washington in a landslide, after Republicans put up a virtually unknown candidate, Elizabeth Emken, an autism activist who had never held elected office.

Independents now outnumber Republicans in 13 congressional districts in California, a trend analysts predict will continue.

California counted more registered Republicans in 1988 than it does today, although the population has grown by about 10 million over that time. You'd have to go back to that year to find a Republican presidential candidate who carried the state, George H.W. Bush.

Surprisingly, Democrats continued to make gains in the state even at a time of double-digit unemployment, with polls showing that voters are unhappy with Sacramento and Washington. And it could get worse for the GOP. Republicans are trailing in two other House races in which the vote counting continues.

It remains unclear what direction Democrats, who have close ties to public employee unions, will take with their additional clout. If they achieve the supermajority in both houses of the Legislature, Democrats can pass tax increases and override gubernatorial vetoes without any Republican support.

The state is saddled with a litany of problems, including a long-running budget crisis, massive, unfunded public pension obligations, tuition increases at California universities and growing demands for water, affordable housing and energy.

Gov. Jerry Brown sounded a cautionary note this week, saying he intended to avoid spending binges.

Still, Democrats believe they have the state's demographics on their side with a message that appeals to a younger, more diverse population.

More than half the young voters in the state, ages 18 to 39, are Hispanic, according to the independent Field Poll. Thirty-five percent are Asian. If you look into a classroom in the Los Angeles area — tomorrow's voters — 3 of 4 kids are Hispanic.

The GOP retains pockets of influence regionally, including rural, inland areas.

Republican National Committee member Shawn Steel has been pushing the party to become more aggressive about recruiting Asians.

"It's not just all about the Latinos," he says.

Schmidt traces GOP troubles with Hispanics to 1994, when voters with encouragement from Republican Gov. Pete Wilson enacted Proposition 187, which prohibited illegal immigrants from using health care, education or other social services.

The law eventually was overturned, but it left lingering resentment with many Hispanics at a time when the Latino population was growing swiftly and becoming increasingly important in elections.

California "is not just a large state, population-wise, it's a trend-setting state," said Schmidt, a public relations strategist. "It could be a glimpse of the future."

[Guest040616]

Interesting!

[skirtchaser79411]

I just hope this the end of JOHN BONEHEAD from well you know the dead party

[I B Hankering]

Sam Tanenhaus made essentially this same fallacious claim on Bill Moyer's Journal in 2009, but that was before the Republicans took the House in 2010 -- which they retained in 2012.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/09.../profile2.html

[skirtchaser79411]

sorry did i say bone head i meant to say BOEHNER AKA bonehead

[skirtchaser79411]

john boehner is a real problem for this country to move foward the gop is losing ground very quickly, as of the tea baggers or did i mean to say tea party good bye too you also

[txoilngas]

Absolute facts - There are many more Dependents (Democrats) than Independents (Republicans).
During the recent Hurricane, many Democrats were furious because the Government wasn't "taking care of them". Republicans take care of their own.
Democratic "takers" are on the verge of ruining this country as we know it.
JMO

[Texas Contrarian]

It's quite obvious that the Republican Party needs a reformation, but...

Good Lord!

Just take a look at post #16. Does anyone really want to hold up California, of all states, as an example of the gloriousness of Democratic Party dominance? Ballooning levels of social welfare spending and massive payoffs to public-sector unions and other favored constituencies are busting the state.

Originally Posted by BigLouie

Just found this AP story.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — If the future happens first in California, the Republican Party has a problem....California "is not just a large state, population-wise, it's a trend-setting state," said Schmidt, a public relations strategist. "It could be a glimpse of the future."

If California is a "glimpse of the future", we're in even more trouble than I thought.

It's a great spectacle for those who desire just a little extra "edge of aggressiveness" in their fiscal kamikaze missions!

[Yssup Rider]

If your fellas can see past your blinding bitterness for a second, consider that the GOP is in a put up or shut up situation. Piss and moan about the majority of Americans all you want. It makes you smaller. If the GOP is going to survive during this generation, they need to develop policies that addresses the majority that they despise so.

That or resign themselves to being also rans.

[trynagetlaid]

Originally Posted by BigLouie

There was no way this should have been a slam dunk. Even before the election Romney's camp knew that had to get 38% of the Hispanic vote to get elected. Their problems with non-whites was known by the Republican number crunchers. They just could not make the numbers budge. When he made that stupid 47% speech it was all over. As long as Republicans keep attacking non-whites they are doomed.

It should have been a slam dunk if they had offered up something better than Romney. I don't know who they had, if anyone, but certainly they had someone who could relate to more Americans than the silver spoon boy.

If that's the best they had, they might have done better if he had picked a running mate who could help them get one or two swing states. They got zero help from Ryan.

[Texas Contrarian]

Originally Posted by Yssup Rider

If your fellas can see past your blinding bitterness for a second, consider that the GOP is in a put up or shut up situation. Piss and moan about the majority of Americans all you want. It makes you smaller. If the GOP is going to survive during this generation, they need to develop policies that addresses the majority that they despise so.

That or resign themselves to being also rans.

No "blinding bitterness" here, I'm not a fan of the GOP.

I would only make the point that wise partisans should hope to see a reasonable, competent opposition party that can hold their party's feet to the fire and save it from itself.

Notice what happened to the Democrats in 2009-2010 when they crammed through a fiscally irresponsible agenda along a party-line vote, costing them 63 seats in the 2010 midtern elections? That's what happens when a party gets fat, happy, and arrogant.

The Republicans did the same thing during the earlier part of the last decade. How did that work out?

You zealous partisans (on both sides!) sometimes should take a deep breath and realize that you need to be careful what you wish for.

[CuteOldGuy]

How's that total Democrat control working out for you, California?

[theaustinescorts]

The Republican party is the party of Satan.

It began as the party of lunatic abolishionists like John Brown, with catholic haters and xenophobes thrown into the mix.

Its agenda was so malignant that it inspired the entire southern half of the country to leave the union when it's Presidential candidate, Lincoln, was declared the victor in 1860 with only 38% of the vote!

Then Lincoln waged total war on the south, and thereafter the Republicans became the most powerful party in the north by virtue of this bloodshed, and in the south by virtue of their military rule over the conquered peoples of the south.

But in the south the people rebeled again, and the Democratic party was born to re-institute the former order of the south and throw out the Republican conquerers. The Democratic party of the south was the party of self-determination from Republican tyranny.

In the north the people also rebelled, and the Democratic party of the north represented common people and labor against the banking, capitalist, and imperialists of the Republican party.

In the north the Republicans led the country into countless imperial wars for the sake of northern banks and corporations which looted and plundered the third world.

But the Republicans needed to win elections, which they couldn't do representing only the interests of banks, corporate owners and finance capital.

So that's how the Republicans came to reach out to lunatic groups like the evangelical Christians, the Israeli lobby, and other social "conservatives."

But now the game is over.

The youth and minorities who oppose the right-wing social agenda are now the voting majority.

This means the Republicans only have their bankers, corporate CEOs, and would-be robber-barrons "small businessmen" on their side, and that will never will any elections.

The evil party of Satan is finally dead.

[timpage]

Originally Posted by trynagetlaid

It should have been a slam dunk for the Republicans. Then they trotted out guys like Romney, Herman Cain, Santorum, Huntsman, Perry...and chose Romney who was the most electable. Then instead of choosing one of the other guys as his running mate he went with a radical Teanut from a state with a Teanut governor, which they didn't even win!!! Comedy of errors. They couldn't have fucked it up any worse if they tried. Most of the inner circle knew they were doomed a month or two before the election, but they were hoping for a miracle. And in spite of all their blunders, they almost got one.

This is exactly correct. The fact that the GOP couldn't come up with a candidate and an agenda, in this economy, to beat Obama, is indicative of serious problems within the party.

I don't believe the 2012 election results spell the end of the Republicans, but I think that unless the reasonable, more centrist Republicans get control of their party, that they may be banished to the wilderness of nothing more than an opposition party for a long time to come. If the Tea Party continues to control the GOP agenda, they're in for serious problems for the forseeable future.

Let's keep our fingers crossed.

[bojulay]

As more and more people become dependent on government
hand outs then more and more will vote for the Democrats
who promise to continue and increase those hand outs,
just becomes a way of life for them, they get to where
they don't know any other. Any other way becomes the
enemy.

The slow creeping elimination of opportunity through government
control, until the only opportunity left is dependency on the
government.


It's the Obamamerican way, get with the program or get out.


ha ha ha ha