Obama's victory is a harsh lesson for Republicans [View all]

[JRLeft]

Last edited Wed Nov 7, 2012, 05:59 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: LA Times

The people have spoken. President Obama has won a chance to move beyond the stunted progress of his first term and, perhaps, become a historic president. On the losing side, the Republican Party remains shut out of the White House and has blown a chance to take over the U.S. Senate, largely because it catered to the narrow concerns of tea party zealots and social conservatives who imagined themselves as the only authentic Americans but who are, in fact, way out of step with most of the people in this country.

If Republicans fail to learn the lesson of this election they are fools. If they continue to let Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity set the angry, extreme tone for their philosophy; if they continue to let anti-science religious fundamentalists dictate their social agenda; and if they think Mitt Romney fell short because he was not conservative enough when, in fact, he only began to catch on with moderate voters when he suddenly veered from his self-proclaimed “severe conservatism” and transformed back into a Massachusetts moderate; then they are doomed to become a party of the past.

Obama was reelected by a coalition representing what the United States is becoming. Sure, a lot of aging, parochial white people do not like it – they do not like gays getting married or Latinos getting a chance at citizenship or urban liberals telling them that we are not just a nation of self-reliant cowboys, but a diverse, multiracial society that needs to be more tolerant and economically egalitarian. But this was quite possibly the last election in which a party that seemed to represent only this traditional, white America had a shot at victory.

That does not mean a conservative cannot become president. A pragmatic fiscal conservative with an enlightened view of immigration and a tolerant attitude on social issues could do quite well. Romney could have run as just such a candidate. He certainly tried to pose as one in the final weeks of the campaign, but it was too late for him to take back all his primary campaign pandering to the right wing.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-obama-victory-20121106,0,2145466.story

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