The Republican Party is aware they must make changes in order to keep up with the changing face of the American landscape. Politicians who made moronic statements about immigration, women and rape failed to get elected in 2012. Despite spending billions of dollars and trying to make voting impossible or extremely difficult, they lost big.
I recently posed a question on Facebook and it got some really interesting replies. I also received emails from people who wished to give more detailed responses.
This is the post (somewhat modified):
“The GOP is scrambling and trying to re-brand and change their messaging because they can’t win elections.
What they need to do is stop being racist and take religion out of politics. The younger generation is socially progressive – even the younger Republicans. They want abortion to be legal. They want birth control and they want it on their insurance plans. Unless the party can appeal to a broader base, they will keep losing.
America is changing and will always change. I am not sure they are capable of it. The generation that insists on forcing religious beliefs into law will have to die off. What do you think?”
Cynthia Phillips had this to say:
I volunteer with teenagers in my community, which is very conservative, and most of the teens describe themselves as Republicans (even though they can’t vote yet). To a person, each of these kids is pro-birth control, anti-abortion but pro-choice, and I have gay friends who want marriage equality. Many of these kids are spiritual, but not religious, or choose to express their faith differently than their parents and don’t want their religion mixed with their politics. These are upper middle class kids with good values who are fiscally and morally conservative, but just can’t support the socially backwards agenda of their parents’ GOP.
I live in Belmont NC, and have been here 20 years, originally from Las Vegas and raised by Democrats. My dad was a civil rights attorney in the 60s. I have 2 teenagers, a 16 year old junior daughter and 14 year old freshman son. She’s in the marching band and theatre, he’s in theatre, plays football, and is working on his Eagle badge in Scouts, which he will earn before his 16th birthday, both straight A students. Most of their friends are Republicans because their parents are, but socially these kids run the gamut. I volunteer with the high school theatre. We have gay, straight, geeks, nerds, emos, goths, jocks, beauty queens, you name it.
These GOP kids don’t see progressive, social agendas (birth control, marriage equality, safe abortion) as enemies like their parents do. These are smart, thoughtful kids, who know the world they live in and they just don’t buy the scare tactics that have held their parents hostage.
Aaron from Denver said:
I’m a 40 year old Gen-X guy who went back to school a few years ago. It was very diverse and there were obviously a lot of people in their teens and early 20s. This is in a suburb of Denver. There were a lot of kids from conservative areas, the more affluent suburbs—the Western Slope in the mountains. There were several I worked with on projects from Colorado Springs whose families had moved here as part of the Evangelical Migration to that area and had been home-schooled.
I was very prepared to handle things as I always have with people like that, which would be a little standoffish. But the stereotypes were wrong. I was wrong. They DO have gay friends. They DO have friends of color. They didn’t judge on economic backgrounds. On Facebook, they openly show their faith and talk about events with their church, but not like the people I knew growing up. This generation has more joy and less judgment in their tone. I realized I had to be more open this time and I’ve been yelling it from the rooftops since. It’s more complicated now, and in a good way. I’m the one who needed to adapt.
Here is a sampling of some more comments on the thread:
Tod: In general, younger people are less conservative today. If the GOP does not change quickly, that party will become a distant memory. If it stays as it is currently, the party is as good as done.
Gregori: They are scared. Life as they want it is rapidly changing, and they can’t handle it so they are trying to stop progress.
Steve: You’re right, they didn’t win in 2000, or 2004. They surely didn’t win in 2008 and got their asses kicked in 2012.
Suzette: The only young people they will have are the ones who do not have enough guts to tell their parents no. As in Romney kids, who go to their parents to borrow money to start businesses.
Terry: What concerns me most is the effect that these rabid politicians and their media whores are having on their mentally unbalanced audience. I thoroughly expect violence as more and more of them reach the tipping point…
Amanda: Yeah. The GOP lost because of their “brand”. Maybe they should just change their formula, slap on a redesigned label, and call themselves New Coke. Morons. Each and every last one of them. If I were a true Republican — like a normal person who believed in the fiscal policies which are historically considered conservative — I’d be pissed at my party right now.
Joy: The numbers tell it all. Without the crazies, the GOP couldn’t win an election, so they courted them. It’s just like John McCain. He’s not really one of the crazies, but he had to act crazy to get re-elected in AZ. Now, they are yelling at him when he tries to reason with them. There is no reasoning with irrational people. I also expect to see some violence erupt in pockets of certain areas similar to what we saw during the Civil Rights movement in the 60s. There are nut cases who want violence and they will probably try to precipitate it. But, I don’t see the whole country getting involved in it. Most people just want to live their lives and go about their business peacefully. The GOP cannot survive on the path they have taken. I’m not a fan of Newt Gingrich, but he is right in all his criticism of his party today.
John: Red states vote with their emotions on moral issues, which also happen to be political wedge issues. These control with fear due to ignorance of the facts. So the GOP will still continue to hold Congress or the Rep majority in the house. I would not be so confident or count them out yet for many reasons. They already are working on changing the means of voting and on which votes get counted. Rove and company have years of dirty political tricks and gerrymandering up their sleeves.
Phil: I consider myself a conservative and I’m not here to cause trouble. I would vote for anyone that would have an agenda like Jesus. It’s very hard to see that in any political party right now. I don’t bash Democrats and I also shy away from some so called conservatives/Republicans. In my opinion there are dark days ahead…and I don’t think the solution is to cut each other down. Unfortunately I see it on both sides of the fence. Social media can be great tool but it can also be a very divisive instrument that doesn’t do any of us any good at all—sometimes. Just so you all know I am not a big fan of Fox News.
But go ahead. Start slinging the mud. I will just duck. I’m sure I offended someone.
Carl: Most of those GOP tea party people are full of racism, sexism and religious hypocrites.
It should be noted that no attack was made on Phil for being the brave, lone Republican on the thread.
What do you think will happen with the Republican Party? Will they ever agree on one message? Will they break off into two parties or will they fade away?
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Kimberley A. Johnson (BIO) is the author of The Virgin Diaries and an activist for women’s rights. Like her on Facebook, Twitter or follow her on FB HERE. |
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