In one big swoop, the American people showed their "wholesale rejection of President Bush and the GOP's policies" by electing a Democratic Party majority in the BOTH the House and the Senate. Amazing. The pundits are saying that the Republican party must "think long and hard about who and what they are" now.
I personally noticed and realized the Republican party's downfall during Obama's victory speech on Election Night. At Grant Park, you saw a mix of Caucausians, Africans, Hispanics, Asians, and many others - and they were all cheering and screaming and so enthusiastic. Compare that to McCain's concession speech - the ONLY demographic I saw were whites. Many of them seemed disappointed that McCain did not win but still supportive, which is understandable and expected. But there were also many people there who just sounded angry and McCain had to stop his speech several times to calm them down.
That was when I realized just how "behind the times" the Republican party is. If you treated the Parties as companies, the GOP is the old player with antiquated equipment, using obsolete technology, run by a bunch of old white guys who's play by the same rules for generations. On the flipside, the Democrats looks like the young start-up who's embracing new technology like the internet, run by a group of young, energetic, diverse team recently graduated from the top universities, and ready to revolutionize the world with a fresh outlook and no boundaries. Of course, there are some similarities and there are some "that's what they want you to believe" things in my metaphor. I realize that. I realize what the word "politician" means and I know that politicians will always be politicians.
What I'm saying though, is that if the Republican party wants to survive, they need a new winning strategy. And let me tell you this - their new strategy will have to ditch the extreme-right nutjob "base." They need to lose the hatemongerers like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly and basically everyone on Fox News. It's okay to be right, but they need to move over to the center and learn to embrace those that are not "like them," meaning other races, other demographics.
Four years is a long time and I'm sure they can change their image if they really wanted. But if they don't, I can easily see the next 12 years belonging to the Democrats.
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1 comment:
fantastic, well-written posts (both this one and the one below). especially the one below since you give me hope that obama will have the ability to lead (not that i think mccain would have done a good job).
what scares me is the young people who believe in mccain. even though he billed himself as "change," he is still part of the republican party. and as you said, the party needs to CHANGE.
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