Whatever your political inclinations are, President Barack Obama’s re-election signified a call for change within the Republican Party. There was no wait for Republicans to criticize what went wrong and who was to blame.
Republicans argued that Gov. Mitt Romney had the issues on his side. The economy had weak growth, unemployment was still high and the national debt was increasing. How then did Romney come to lose? There will be a lot of finger pointing going on within the party for many days to come. As a Republican who has felt isolated from some of the more extreme positions the party has taken, here is the advice that I and many other Republicans offer:
We need to understand that we are not asking the Republican Party to move to the left. The conservative ideal can still be broadened to appeal to individuals who are eager to join or rejoin the Republican Party. There will be Republicans who will say that we lost because Romney was not conservative enough. We know that this is not true because Romney had his base right behind him as he posed himself as a staunch conservative beating out Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich. What is more important to point out is that the demographics have changed across the country and also the support for certain policy issues. This is why the party must modernize itself to succeed in the 21st century.
First, the Republican Party must make a real effort to reach out to minority voters to have a better chance of winning future presidential elections. Republicans did horrible on this front and proved to be costly this year in many battleground states. It isn’t enough for the party to have some party leaders who are minorities. People care about policy issues and where the candidates or political parties stand. Let us consider some policy issues.
On the issue of immigration, the Republicans have isolated Latinos with the support of certain provisions of the Arizona immigration law and rhetoric like “self-deportation.” On Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) issues, this has not only divided the country but also the party. The lack of support from the whole party for marriage equality or non-discrimination LGBT policies has alienated the LGBT community. On science, Republicans must embrace it. Particularly the party must accept global climate change as reality since there is data and scientific consensus on this fact.
We are not asking Republicans to adopt cap and trade but at least they must realize this fact to propose solutions that are pro-business and environmentally friendly to address this important issue. On abortion, the rhetoric always seems to lead to a comment about rape, which as a society we have decided is illegal under the law and disgraceful as a society. We are not asking for Republicans to be pro-choice. We are asking Republicans to be at the very least more compassionate in their rhetoric.
If the Republican Party is able to consider and adopt some of these suggestions as people like myself, Ted Olson, Laura Bush, Dick Cheney, Kay Bailey Hutchison and Jon Huntsman are fighting for, then the Republican Party will be able to compete in the 21st century. Demographics and policy support are changing quickly and the party must adapt if it is to survive.
Luna is a junior majoring in economics with financial applications and political science. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].
