The GOP's demographics are against them.

[Lago PARANOIA]

So what are they gonna do with being virtually locked out of the youth vote and alienating the fastest growing population subgroup?

I mean, just judging by the numbers, the GOP is facing a death spiral--pretty much the only way they can win is by continually appealing to the base, which is shrinking.

Serves 'em right.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

I wish I had your confidence. I see more and more inbred meth-addicted hicks who are more than willing to give up all chances of prosperity and see our environment raped to death if it means that "them thar [EDITED] can't git married HYUK HYUK HYUK!"

[Lago PARANOIA]

Hard as it might have seemed with the 2008 election, being anti-LGBT rights is a losing proposition in the long run. What with decreased religiousity and greater tolerance.

[zeruslord]

Count Arioch lives out in Hicksville, VA, which gives him a completely different perspective on Virginians and the country as a whole than what I have in North Virginia, which is, in fact, part of the North. The things that cause me to lose faith in democracy here are actually retards who worship the very ground Obama treads on without having any understanding of the issues at all. That and our wonderful, democratically elected school board "representatives". My representative decided to redistrict my high school to boost the test scores of the school he really represents, which only has the IB program and would keep name_here from getting a decent math education, and chose the neighborhoods to be redistricted by talking to the PTA at the school we were officially moved to.

[Surgo]

What really gets me is the Rush Limbaugh idea of rebuilding the party -- seeing as how the conservative message failed, his idea is to get more conservative.

[Gelare]

Lago is right when he says stuff like

virtually locked out of the youth vote and alienating the fastest growing population subgroup?

and

being anti-LGBT rights is a losing proposition in the long run.

The thing is, the GOP got hammered these last few elections, and rightfully so, but their demise, while inevitable, is not right now; it's many decades from now. Because the United States is a conservative country. And, even more interesting, the United States is not a liberal country. 40% of people are conservative. 40% are moderate. And the remaining 20% are liberals. Not exactly great numbers for the Democrats. Obama will have his eight years, and there will probably be a democratic president for at least another four years after that, but the Republicans will begin to make gains in Congress, and soon (in political terms) they'll be back at full strength.

[Absentminded_Wizard]

I'm not even sure tracking people who identify themselves as "liberal" is really useful. After all, people on the left have started running from the scarlet L and calling themselves "progressives."

And even if your poll numbers are accurate, the GOP still has problems. I remember a recent poll (which I can't dig up online now) which found that Democratic voters in 2008 were almost evenly split between moderates and liberals, with a healthy conservative representation (something like 36% liberal, 34% moderate and 20% conservative, IIRC). Republican voters, OTOH, were something like 67% conservative. So if you're a moderate, which party's more welcoming of you? The fact that most of the GOP is buying into the idea that they need to become more conservative to win spells major problems for them.

[Neeeek]

Because the United States is a conservative country. And, even more interesting, the United States is not a liberal country. 40% of people are conservative. 40% are moderate. And the remaining 20% are liberals.

Not even close to being true. The Democratic Party's official position on nearly every issue is the more popular one nationally, gay marriage being the most obvious exception (and that will be the majority position within 20 years).

Many, many people who consider them "moderates" (even a fair number of "conservatives") would, if you asked them issue by issue what they are in favor of, would be considered flaming liberals. They just don't like the word.

Beyond that, the GOP isn't a particularly conservative party. It's the less fiscally conservative party in the US, it takes, by far, the less conservative policy on foreign affairs. The only manner the modern GOP is still conservative is on social issues, which is sad because those positions typically involve actively hurt people without any real benefit to anyone.

[Bigode]

It's the less fiscally conservative party in the US, it takes, by far, the less conservative policy on foreign affairs.

Could you elaborate?

[Absentminded_Wizard]

On fiscal conservatism: The biggest deficits of the last 40 years have been run up by Republican presidents (Reagan and Bush 43).

On foreign policy, I asume Neeek is taking the position that isolationism = conservative and interventionism = liberal. By that standard, George W. Bush had the most liberal foreign policy since FDR, with his policy of preemptive strikes to spread democracy in the Middle East. Meanwhile, Obama came into office saying we should limit our wars to countries who have actually attacked us (or harbored individuals who have).

[JonSetanta]

Count Arioch lives out in Hicksville, VA, which gives him a completely different perspective on Virginians and the country as a whole than what I have in North Virginia, which is, in fact, part of the North.

Fuck y'all, Bath/West Virginia is amazing.

[Crissa]

'Pretty' does not mean 'stupid people who forget that shitting in their own water is bad live here.'

-Crissa

[Judging__Eagle]

People aren't moderate, they're neutral.

[Crissa]

Although, while it was popular to say 'I'm conservative', at no time were conservative policies or paths to those policies were popular with the majority.

Hence 'Clear Skies' bill that actually led to more pollution and restricting what states can do to clean things; the 'Healthy Forests' initiative which led to more logging, clearcutting camping areas, and destructing of fisheries; anti-abortion anti-contraceptive teaching 'abstinence only' and 'pro life' which leads to more disease, more teen mothers, and more abortions; etc ad infinitum.

They have to lie and spend billions of dollars to make it look like they're not doing what they are doing.

-Crissa

[Gelare]

The Democratic Party's official position on nearly every issue is the more popular one nationally, gay marriage being the most obvious exception (and that will be the majority position within 20 years).

Many, many people who consider them "moderates" (even a fair number of "conservatives") would, if you asked them issue by issue what they are in favor of, would be considered flaming liberals. They just don't like the word.

You're right, and that's very important. Many people agree with more Democratic proposals than they do Republican ones. The fact that people, in spite of this, still identify in conservatives in massive numbers is extremely important. Political affiliation is extraordinarily psychological in nature, so when the Republican party has words associated with it like "conservative", "patriotic", "freedom", and, most of all, "American" (all words that the Republican party is significantly more connected to than the Democratic party in peoples' minds), even if people wouldn't really agree with them on the major issues, it doesn't matter because people don't know the major issues. What they do know is that they're Americans, durn it, and they're proud of this country, and they're going to vote for the American party - the Republican Party. They're temporarily out of style, but it'd be majorly foolish to sound their death toll just yet.