Jerry E. wrote
Quote:In the words of political wisdom, "it's the economy, stupid, it's always the economy".
I don't disagree with that, but I thought Romney hammered that issue pretty hard, and made a pretty convincing case, that he was the better choice to try to fix things, and he STILL lost. And lost in places like Ohio where it would have been reasonable to expect that the economic woes would have been just about the only issue folks were concerned about.
But I don't think that he lost because of tactical mistakes, poor message presentation ,poor orginization, not enough money etc. either.
There has been a fundamental shift in the way a lot of people in this country think since 9/11 with regard to questions of security vs. freedom, and how much government intrusion into their lives they are willing to accept. DHS, TSA, warrantless wiretaps,social media data mining, and routine IV amendment violations at every level of law enforcement from the feds right down to your local town dept, would have been inconceivable in the United States just 12 years ago. Not to mention the unprecedented interference with private enterprise of all kinds. Now these things are part of the status quo. I think what made the difference in the last two elections was not voters looking for a CEO, but voters looking for a Messiah.
I don't know what the Republican party can do about that. A true conservative has no chance, and a moderate like Romney will lose just enough voters from the fringes of both parties to make it impossible for a Republican to win a presidential election in the forseeable future. This just isn't the same country it was a few short years ago.
I hate to say it, but I think the next few years are really going to suck.