Republican 2014 Will Be Great Because Minorities and Young

[frigidmagi]

People Won't Vote

Nevada Republican Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey let his lips get a little too loose on a local talk radio show when he admitted that the only way Republicans can win is if minorities and young people don’t vote.

Hickey said, “We have some real opportunities in 2014. This is a great year in an off presidential election. Seemingly no Democrat at the top of the ticket against Sandoval.No Harry Reid. Probably where we had a million voters turnout in 2012, we’ll have like 700,000. A lot of minorities, a lot of younger people will not turn out in a non-presidential year. It’s a great year for Republicans.”

Republicans know that when minorities and younger people show up to vote, they lose. This knowledge is behind everything from voter suppression efforts to their optimism about 2014. It is a little stunning to hear an elected Republican admit that if the full electorate shows up, the GOP expects to lose, but it’s the truth. The only chance that Republicans have of winning elections outside of their red state base is if Democrats don’t show up.

The backwards thinking in the GOP is amazing. Instead of trying to expand the size of the Republican Party by courting minorities and young people, Republicans are perfectly happy to only win off year elections. Actually, the lesson that the Republican Party has learned is that they should try to shrink the size of the electorate, and turn every year into an off year election. Republicans are more interested in preventing Democrats from voting than they are in convincing Democratic supporters to vote Republican.

This logic is why House Republican are perpetually appealing to their base with an endless stream of votes against Obamacare. They think that the electorate will be Republican in 2014. They don’t expect Democrats to show up and vote. The best way to throw a monkey wrench into their plan is to not take a break in 2014. Work just as hard as you would on getting your friends and family to the polls on Election Day.

Republicans are counting on Democrats sitting out 2014. The message is clear. The only way that they can win is if Democrats don’t show up.

This isn't very objective but it is more or less what's going on.

But don't take my word for it, listen to him yourself.

[youtube][/youtube]

[General Havoc]

Honestly, I don't see why this guy's getting so much flak. He's merely stating an objective truth that everyone with a brain already knows: Minorities and young people don't vote Republican, consequently elections where they don't turn out as heavily will favor Republicans more than the opposite. He's not the one setting the policies by which this is the case, but recognizing that it is truth. Stating that the Nazi Party existed does not make one a Nazi. And for a Republican to finally publicly say what every single electoral pundit has been saying for six years is not evidence of some fresh betrayal.

[Josh]

It is evidence that they still don't get it. They're riding a dwindling base downward and won't begin their resurrection until they start looking at all those other demographics as opportunities and not enemies.

[General Havoc]

It is evidence that they still don't get it. They're riding a dwindling base downward and won't begin their resurrection until they start looking at all those other demographics as opportunities and not enemies.

Not to sound pedantic, but how is that? It is evidence that they at least recognize the reality that presently, young people and minorities are not going to vote for them in numbers. That is unlikely to change in the next year or so, and thus they are accepting the fact that such demographics are not their friends, presently. They cannot begin to try and diversify their platform without first recognizing that their platform is not diverse.

[Josh]

Not to sound pedantic, but how is that? It is evidence that they at least recognize the reality that presently, young people and minorities are not going to vote for them in numbers. That is unlikely to change in the next year or so, and thus they are accepting the fact that such demographics are not their friends, presently. They cannot begin to try and diversify their platform without first recognizing that their platform is not diverse.

Because the short-term gain here directly opposes their long-term prospects. Yes, having a down year for the opposing base may let them sneak in a bit of a win, but without serious structural changes to their policies and politics it just continues the bad trend of catering to the politically psychotic portion of the base. We need to have them come back so we can go back to having something resembling two-party competition in our government.

[Lys]

You forget, the Republicans massively gerrymandered the Congressional districts such that they left the last House election controlling 54% of the Representatives despite only getting 48% of the vote. The Democrats have the remaining 46% of the Representatives despite their candidates getting 49% of the vote, or 1.4 million more votes than Republican candidates. That was in an a Presidential election that had considerable turnout of youth and minorities. The Republicans have every reason to not give a shit about youth and minorities, continue to pander to their base, and generally be optimistic about their prospects in the upcoming mid-terms elections.

[Josh]

I'm not forgetting that at all. My point is that in doing so they're sacrificing the long-term for what amounts to short-term moral satisfaction. Even if they were to expand their House lead and retake the Senate, they're not going to get anything substantial done in the next two years before their continued idiocy gets them waxed by Hillary or Generic Democrat.

It's a stupid self-destructive mindset. I understand that they're locked into it and Tea Party/Heritage/Limbaugh and so on have painted them into a corner, but I am looking forward to when they'll finally bleed the poison out. Also on a strategic/business level it irks me in the fashion of watching somebody repeatedly fail to tie their own shoelaces.

[Cynical Cat]

I think the big deal about this statement is that American television media is extremely reluctant to deal with the racist and bigoted parts of the Republican Party and here's a Party bigwig essentially admitting to its existence on camera.

[Lys]

It is likely that much of the Republican leadership gives no shits about the long term because they're as old as they're core base, and in the long term they're all dead, so who gives a fuck about after? If your main priority is power while you yet live then that is a rational, if callous, approach to politics. Additionally some of the Republican leadership may hold that they should leverage the advantages that they have, rather than face the uphill struggle of trying to win supporters among groups that are pretty solidly Democrat. When that advantage wears out they can simply reinvent themselves to adjust to the changing circumstance. Such a reinvention is essentially what happened with Reagan, so it's not unprecedented. I find much of the Republican party loathsome, but I don't think they are fools.