GOP to Demographics: Drop Dead

After every big election, someone pronounced the losing party dead and buried. It would be a mistake to make that claim now about the Republicans, but they do have a very real problem:

The demographic changes in the American electorate have come with striking speed and have left many Republicans, who have not won as many electoral votes as Mr. Obama did on Tuesday in 24 years, concerned about their future. The Republicans’ Southern strategy, of appealing mostly to white voters, appears to have run into a demographic wall.

More here. It turns out that running on wedge issues designed to inflame older or rural white voters (gay marriage, immigration) tends to drive off younger voters, immigrants, and urban professionals. Who knew?

This isn’t something they can fix with better messaging. The GOP will need to seriously retool if they want to make a play for these groups and break up the coalition that’s elected Obama twice now. You can’t run on anti-immigrant xenophobia and expect the latino vote to break your way, you know.

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