Mitt Romney's presidential defeat exposed the growing gulfbetween his Republican Party and minorities, a trend conservatives must reverseif they want to take back the White House. Every demographic minority, not tomention the largest voting bloc of all -- women -- voted heavily in favor ofPresident Barack Obama as he swept to re-election victory Wednesday, exit pollsshowed.
The question ought not to be why Romney lost but howRepublicans did not see -- or chose to ignore -- these trendlines as a firewallto their candidate's chances, and what they can do to broaden party appeal in2016 and beyond. Republican US Senator Marco Rubio, a key lawmaker in thenow-stalled negotiations over how to legalize the nation's estimated 12 millionundocumented immigrants, wasted no time acknowledging the party's quandary,particularly with regard to Hispanics. "The conservative movement shouldhave particular appeal to people in minority and immigrant communities who aretrying to make it, and Republicans need to work harder than ever to communicateour beliefs to them," said the Cuban-American lawmaker, already a possiblefrontrunner for 2016.
That mission has been a failure in recent years. Obamadominated Hispanics, the largest ethnic minority in America, 71-27, accordingto exit polls. The figure was even higher among Asians (73 percent) and blacks(93 percent). Romney pledged on the campaign trail to work for comprehensiveimmigration reform, but he has largely opposed broad paths to citizenship forundocumented workers, and his suggestion during the Republican primaries thatillegal immigrants "self-deport" became a rallying cry against him.Minority voters instead pulled the lever for the incumbent, who in his victoryspeech distilled the essence of the American dream for the country'smelting-pot electorate. "It doesn't matter whether you're black or white,or Hispanic or Asian or Native American, or young or old, or rich or poor,able, disabled, gay or straight -- you can make it here in America if you'rewilling to try," the country's first African American president said.
The Republican base of white voters is contracting.College-educated whites are turning increasingly Democratic and the percentageof Americans living in the Republican rural heartlands is also shrinking. Anelectorate that was 90 percent white in 1976 was only 76 percent white in 2008,and is now estimated to drop to about 46 percent white by 2050 as the minorityvote soars into the majority. "The Republican Party is rowing against thetide of demographic change in the United States," history professor AllanLichtman of American University said, who laid out nothing short of a doomsdayscenario for conservatives. "If Republicans fail to expand theirdemographic base they will disappear as surely as the Whigs that they replacedin the 1850s," he said, referring to the party plagued by internal divisionson the issue of slavery.
Republican talk show host Mike Huckabee, a former governorof Arkansas who ran for president as a social conservative in 2008, made therather uncomfortable observation that "Republicans have done a patheticjob of reaching out to people of color." "It's a group of people thatfrankly should be with us based on the real policy of conservatism," hesaid on a news channel. "But Republicans have acted as if they can't getthe vote, so they don't try."
Christopher Arterton, professor at George WashingtonUniversity's Graduate School of Political Management, said Republicans sufferedthrough an "identity crisis election" that highlighted theirdifficulty in cobbling together minority and youth votes. If Republicans wantto continue competing, they "will have to address the kinds of issues andculture clashes that are energising young people," he said. That meanslaying off of the social issues agenda advanced by Christian conservatives andevangelicals, said 16-year-old Nick Stoddington, who attended the Romneyelection night party with his father. On issues like abortion or gay marriage,"we just need to not take such an extreme stance," Stoddington said,highlighting the defeat of two Republican Senate candidates who made what manyconsidered to be outrageous comments about rape and abortion in the run up tothe election. "It makes our party too far to the right to the point whereothers don't want to join."
