Losing the White House and the ousting of President George W. Bush is not enough to bring voters back to the Republican party. It may be too early to tell whether the GOP naturally recovers, but a recent poll indicates that 36% of Americans identify themselves as Democrats while only 28% say they are Republican.
The Democrats’ eight-point party identification advantage could spell huge trouble for Republicans in 2010 and beyond, meaning that the GOP has to carry the majority of its base vote in addition to significant numbers of Independents to win races.
This makes reaching out to moderates and Independents key to victory. This does NOT mean that the Republican party has to become moderate, but it must focus on more main-stream issues like economy, conservation, and the environment and leave talk about abortion and guns to targeted mail pieces of those voters who care about those issues. The fact is that many Americans currently view the Republican party as a group of extremists because we have used the anti-abortion and pro-gun messages as our lead approach. This turned away droves of voters who now say they are Independent or even Democratic. What’s worse is that these voters will be hard to bring back to the party.
Next week, Republicans gather in Washington, D.C. to choose a new Chairman of the RNC. Here’s hoping that all those vying for the position realize that we can still be the conservative party, remaining unmoved on our current issues, without turning people away by pushing messages and issues that are meant for smaller sub-groups.
The “Republican” Problem
Posted by Tyler Harber on Friday, January 23rd, 2009 at 11:10 AM
Losing the White House and the ousting of President George W. Bush is not enough to bring voters back to the Republican party. It may be too early to tell whether the GOP naturally recovers, but a recent poll indicates that 36% of Americans identify themselves as Democrats while only 28% say they are Republican.
The Democrats’ eight-point party identification advantage could spell huge trouble for Republicans in 2010 and beyond, meaning that the GOP has to carry the majority of its base vote in addition to significant numbers of Independents to win races.
This makes reaching out to moderates and Independents key to victory. This does NOT mean that the Republican party has to become moderate, but it must focus on more main-stream issues like economy, conservation, and the environment and leave talk about abortion and guns to targeted mail pieces of those voters who care about those issues. The fact is that many Americans currently view the Republican party as a group of extremists because we have used the anti-abortion and pro-gun messages as our lead approach. This turned away droves of voters who now say they are Independent or even Democratic. What’s worse is that these voters will be hard to bring back to the party.
Next week, Republicans gather in Washington, D.C. to choose a new Chairman of the RNC. Here’s hoping that all those vying for the position realize that we can still be the conservative party, remaining unmoved on our current issues, without turning people away by pushing messages and issues that are meant for smaller sub-groups.