Toro
Diamond Member
This thread is for those who have left the party because they view it as being too extreme, or for the increasingly rare heretics in the party, the "RINOs."
First, scoreboard. The Republicans have lost 4 of the last 6 Presidential elections, the Presidential popular vote in 5 of the last 6 Presidential elections, and moderates in 5 of the last 6 Presidential elections, and will probably extend that losing streak if Hillary runs in 2016.
Next, math. According to FoxNews exit polls, moderates were 45% of the electorate in the 2012 Presidential election and voted for Obama over Romney, 56% to 41%. With 130 million Americans voting, that is a deficit of nearly 9 million voters. Obama beat Romney by 5 million votes.
For a party that reveres business, I find it odd that so many of the base believe that the best path to winning is to make the party more appealing to themselves and less appealing to everyone else. A successful businessperson wants to expand her market and sell her product to more people, not shrink the market and sell less. But that appears to be the course many in the party want to take.
As the base of the GOP does it's best to emulate the "success" of the Democrat party of the 1970s and 1980s by becoming too exclusionary and doctrinaire, think of this thread as a self-help thread for the Republican party as those who once considered themselves to be Republicans but are no more tell you why.
First, an assessment from Peggy Noonan, Reagan's speechwriter.
Noonan: Republicans Need to Talk - WSJ.com
And now, from one poster
First, scoreboard. The Republicans have lost 4 of the last 6 Presidential elections, the Presidential popular vote in 5 of the last 6 Presidential elections, and moderates in 5 of the last 6 Presidential elections, and will probably extend that losing streak if Hillary runs in 2016.
Next, math. According to FoxNews exit polls, moderates were 45% of the electorate in the 2012 Presidential election and voted for Obama over Romney, 56% to 41%. With 130 million Americans voting, that is a deficit of nearly 9 million voters. Obama beat Romney by 5 million votes.
For a party that reveres business, I find it odd that so many of the base believe that the best path to winning is to make the party more appealing to themselves and less appealing to everyone else. A successful businessperson wants to expand her market and sell her product to more people, not shrink the market and sell less. But that appears to be the course many in the party want to take.
As the base of the GOP does it's best to emulate the "success" of the Democrat party of the 1970s and 1980s by becoming too exclusionary and doctrinaire, think of this thread as a self-help thread for the Republican party as those who once considered themselves to be Republicans but are no more tell you why.
First, an assessment from Peggy Noonan, Reagan's speechwriter.
Republicans are now in the habit of editing their views, and they've been in it for 10 years. The Bush White House suppressed dissent; talk-radio stars functioned as enforcers; the angrier parts of the base, on the Internet, attempted to silence critical thinkers. Orthodoxy was everything, or orthodoxy as some defined it. This isn't loyalty, it's lockstep. It has harmed the party's creativity, its ability to think, when now more than ever it has to.
Noonan: Republicans Need to Talk - WSJ.com
And now, from one poster
I was a republican over 40 yrs and I am now an independent and so is many many used to be devout republicans. My leaving the party started not too much before the primary season, when the extremists were gearing up anyone that dared disagree with a single component of their platform or agenda was vilified and labeled a rhino and a liberal.
As a working class republican I was offended by the attacks on the public "WORKERS" not bums and skids and people looking for a handout...WORKING class people. I was offended by the rhetoric coming out of the mouths of newly elected republican govs.
In short the Gop went waaay to far and they lost votes here and they lost some there and they lost some there and they "LOST" the election. The most amazing thing to me is that the teaparty who made the republican party lose is still tooting their horns and beating their chests. Im not alone theres many that left the gop...and wont be back anytime soon.
Last edited: