Romney, GOP are stuck in old America
By BILL SCHNEIDER | 9/23/12 9:44 PM EDT
When GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney loses in November, Republicans will ask themselves, “How did this happen?” How did they blow their best opportunity to capture the White House since 1980?
They are likely to come up with the wrong answer. They will blame everything on the candidate.
That is certainly part of the answer but not all of it.
Romney’s gaffes have exposed him as painfully out of touch with ordinary Americans. Things like, “Corporations are people” and “Ten thousand dollar bet?” and “My wife drives a couple of Cadillacs” and “I have some friends who are NASCAR team owners” and “I like being able to fire people.”
The latest revelations from a Florida fundraiser make things worse. They show Romney as not just out of touch but disdainful of ordinary Americans. He depicted half the country as moochers and parasites. He sounded like he was talking to the board of the country club. If President Bill Clinton is a political natural, Romney is a political doofus.
Republicans may be reluctant to admit it, but picking Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as his running mate was a serious blunder. Ryan changed the election from a referendum on the economy, which Republicans could win, to a referendum on the safety net, which is the Democrats’ turf.
Now we find out that Romney has contempt for Americans who depend on the safety net: “My job is not to worry about those people,” he said at that fundraiser, “I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
A lot of Republicans will very likely conclude that Romney lost because he was too moderate. After Sen. John McCain’s failure in 2008 and now Romney’s defeat, Republicans may well say, “If only we had nominated a real conservative, we would have won.” As a result, the tea party will become more aggressive and push Republicans even further to the right.
That’s the opposite of what the Democrats did in the 1980s, when they suffered successive defeats by Ronald Reagan. Democrats figured out that they were getting too far out of the mainstream and ultimately came up with a centrist who led them back to victory. Clinton a centrist? Yes. His major policy achievements — free trade, welfare reform and a balanced budget — got more support from Republicans than Democrats.
Republicans still haven’t figured out how to compete in the New America. An America that is more diverse, better educated, more tolerant and more open to change. They’re stuck in the Old America: Clint Eastwood.
Look at the evidence: For decades, Republicans have taken advantage of a conservative social issue backlash. But President Barack Obama now leads Romney by 20 points on “handling social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage,” according to an Associated Press poll. Conservatives like to call themselves “values voters.” But more Americans say Obama “shares my values” than Romney, 50 percent to 40 percent, in a Pew Research Center poll.
The Pew poll checked the favorability ratings of presidential candidates of both parties in September of every election year since 1988. Every single nominee was favorably regarded at this point in the campaign. Even Michael Dukakis (198
, Bob Dole (1996) and John Kerry (2004). The exception: Mitt Romney, 50 percent to 45 percent unfavorable.
The latest Senate polls show Democrats gaining ground in Virginia, Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida and Missouri — all states Republicans are hoping to carry. That suggests it’s not just a Romney problem. It’s a Republican problem. The party has been captured by forces that are pushing it out of the mainstream.
For 80 years, the most damaging stereotype of the Republican Party has been that it’s the party of wealth and privilege. That’s why Republicans are usually careful not to nominate candidates for president who were born rich. They do best with candidates born to modest circumstances like Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Both George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush were born to wealth and privilege, and when the economy turned sour during their watch, they paid the price.
Democrats can get away with nominating a Franklin D. Roosevelt or a John F. Kennedy. They were Democrats — advocates for ordinary Americans.
Romney, however, reinforces the stereotype of Republicans as the party of wealth and privilege. And he seems to remind voters of it every day.
The problem is certainly Romney. But it’s not just Romney. It’s also a party problem. The only age group Sen. John McCain carried in 2008 was seniors. The only age group Romney is carrying right now is seniors. Literally, the Old America.
Like Facebook, the Democratic Party has run into some problems. But the Republicans have got to come up with something better than Myspace if they want to compete.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81569_Page2.html#ixzz27PmqMt4n
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