REPUBLICANS AND ELECTIONS

               
Many commentators have asserted that the Reason why the Republicans lost the 2012 presidential

election was that they lost the votes of Hispanics, African Americans, women, gays, and young people. Republicans expected that Mitt Romney would win easily because the nation was still suffering from a devastating recession and because there was still high unemployment. Instead, Barack Obama, a mixed-race Democrat from Chicago, won a second term by capturing a large majority of the votes of those groups. Some Republicans began to realize that they needed to do something to win more of the votes of those groups or they would lose again in 2016.

            One group that the Republicans thought they might bring over was the Hispanics. Obama won a majority of their votes despite the fact that they are often conservative. There was talk about Republicans easing-up on immigration questions. One Republican senator, Marco Rubio, became a spokesman for immigration reform. Several other Republican senators joined with some Democrats in a “Gang of Eight” in order to work-out a compromise bill that would reform the immigration laws. So what happened? The U.S. Senate finally voted to pass the compromise immigration bill, but a majority of the Republicans voted against it. Every Democrat voted for it.

            What is worse, the bill went to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives where it seems to have died. Speaker John Boehner has said that if it is not supported by a majority of the Republicans, he will not allow the bill to be brought-up for a vote. So there is your Republican Party. While all Democrats favor reform of the immigration laws and eventual citizenship for undocumented aliens, most Republicans oppose such reform.

            In 2016, Hispanic and other immigrants will surely remember that it was the Democratic Party that supported them. I doubt that they will be impressed by the handful of Republicans who supported reform. The Republicans have not reformed themselves. Even where they support some changes in the immigration laws, they refuse to support eventual citizenship for undocumented aliens. Their main concern is to have more security along the border with Mexico in order to prevent fewer “illegal” immigrants from entering the U.S. With a few exceptions, the Republicans are still a group of right-wing, close-minded older white men who have a xenophobic attitude about foreigners.

            So where are the Republicans going to pick-up more votes in 2016? Will it be women? Well, the right to control your body and to decide whether or not to have children is an important issue for a majority of the women in America. Democrats all over the country have supported the rights to abortion and birth control. Republicans have stoutly opposed women on those issues. Recently, over the fierce opposition of Democrats, Republican legislators in Texas passed a bill which would greatly restrict abortion and force the closing of abortion clinics all-over Texas.

 In every state, it is the Republicans who are trying to restrict women’s access to abortion, the morning after pills, abortion inducing medications, and birth control. Women all over America know who is on their side. They will remember this in 2016, particularly if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee for President.

            I don’t need to go into the likelihood of Republicans picking-up the votes of African Americans or Gays. African Americans will remember the vicious attacks by Republicans against the first Black president in American history. They will recognize the desperate efforts of Republicans in many states to make it more difficult for them to vote. They will remember the votes of Republican Supreme Court justices to wipe-out the most important parts of the Voting-Rights Act. They will remember the Court’s decision to cripple affirmative action.

 As for Gays? Forget it. It is obvious that Republicans hate Gays. It is hard to imagine why any gay person would vote Republican.

            You would think that young people are a group from which Republicans might pick-up some votes. But no. Republicans continue to express their disapproval of everything young people do from music to sex to clothing. The Republican Party Platform approved in 2012 called for an end to the federal direct student loan program. In addition, efforts by Democrats to prevent the interest charges on student loans from doubling in 2013 were opposed by the Republicans in the Senate.

            So what can Republicans do to recapture the White House in 2016? I doubt that they are willing to do the things necessary to win-over these large groups of voters. I think that they have, if anything, antagonized these groups even more than they did in 2012. I think that they will lose again..