Oh Republicans. You've gotten the floor wiped with your hineys again, and your pundits are screaming about how your candidate wasn't conservative enough, or that he was too conservative. Today Herman Cain speaks of a third party, a truly conservative party that could energize the Republican base.
It's like you've learned absolutely nothing. Doesn't anyone sit around and read reports from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life? Over the last 20 years nearly 40% of people have left the religion they were raised in, most for a life without religion. The fastest growing population segment, religiously, are the people who identify themselves as atheist or agnostic. Those people (65% of atheists, 62% of agnostics) either lean Democrat or identify themselves as Democrats. Even Catholics, during the most recent study, went 48% Democrat and 33% Republican. I like to joke that as a Catholic Democrat I'm a dying breed, but the large Latin populations of the Catholic faith, maybe the only growing religious segment in the country, are being pushed to the left by a GOP who campaigns against immigration and against health-care reform. While the GOP likes to paint itself as the "family values" party, are you honestly dense enough to believe that your family values are more important to a populace than the ability to get a good job, or more importantly, the ability to acquire citizenship and stay in the country where you push your family values. You see, I have voted for candidates run by both major parties, but the Republican party of today is so far out of touch with what is important to me that I don't see it ever repairing itself. Get out of my bedroom and be the party you once were, a party in touch with fiscally conservative issues, a party that was beloved by people of all socio-economic classes for having a solid and responsible fiscal plan. If you want to be relevant again you beg Herman Cain and his whack-job far right to leave the party and form their own third party. Very few of those people will ever be elected. As Republicans you realize that you agree with Democrats, and our President, on a great many things. Health-care reform is a good thing. You know it, and we know it. The only other person to pass sweeping health care reform was a Republican Governor of Massachusetts, some guy named Mitt Romney. You supported it then, he supported it then. Just admit we agree, and that you let your perceived base sway you on that. 51% of Americans believe that abortion laws are just fine the way they are. If you continue to attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade to energize the 10% at your far right, you will remain irrelevant. Since 2004, the number of Americans who support gay marriage has increased two to three percent annually. In 2012, that percent surpassed 50% of the American populace (Source: NY Times Poll, 9 MAY 2012). Running opposed to gay marriage means you are running opposed to half the country, and leaving an undecided (on gay marriage) 5% open to maybe agreeing with you. This energizes your far right, and that's it. On the issue of government legislation of morality 52% of the total population believes that the government is too heavily involved in morality legislation. 58% of mainline Protestants, 71% of Jews, 67% of Buddhists, and 66% of unaffiliated (religiously) voters believe government should mind it's own business. Just how far out of touch are you? Here's a number. 59% of Muslims and 54% of Mormons...those are the only two religious groups where a majority believe that the government should be more involved in morality legislation. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has just over 6 million members (Source: American Religious Identification Survey), while the US is home to 2.5 million Muslims. If we assume that EVERY single member of those two groups is a registered voter, and that they 100% would support that candidate, you get 8.5 million votes. That's completely ignoring how badly the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have eroded Muslim American support for the Republican party (in 2000, nearly 80% of American Muslims voted for Bush, in 2008, 70% voted for President Obama). How far has the GOP fallen since being formed as the anti-slavery party? How far has it fallen since the Contract with America was built upon sweeping fiscal reforms? Today, on a national level, the GOP is irrelevant, but the blame for that falls squarely on a party that panders to an out of touch base, and in so doing, alienates moderates on both sides of the aisle. The best thing for the moderate Republicans, the fiscally conservative Republicans with a real grasp on the social issues, who I choose to believe are mostly moderate in social issues, is to line up the likes of Cain, and of Palin, and cut them loose. Do you want to be relevant again in my lifetime GOP? If so, it's time to realize that the people who vote religiously in this country aren't close to a majority, and might not even be a plurality anymore. Start making sense, or go home and realize that the White House will be a democratic bastion for the next 12 or more years.
