The GOP: Where do we go from here?

If Republicans don’t do some “soul searching” before the next election, “this defeat will just be the beginning."

“What went wrong?” said Gerald Seib in The Wall Street Journal. Republicans began the 2012 campaign fully confident that they could wrest back the White House from Barack Obama, but his triumphant re-election this week left them “in a cloud of gloom.” With unemployment at 7.9 percent and Americans doubting Obama’s economic leadership, Mitt Romney and the GOP should have cruised to an easy victory. Instead, Republicans find themselves caught up in bickering and second-guessing, and wondering what it takes to win a presidential election. “Romney not only lost, he lost decisively,” said Michael Tanner in NationalReview.com. In coming weeks, many will heap the blame on Romney, or on Hurricane Sandy, or on the liberal media, but if we care about our party, we can’t hide behind these facile excuses. The voters just sent us a message, and if Republicans don’t do some “soul searching” before the next election, “this defeat will just be the beginning.”

If history is any guide, said Jennifer Rubin in WashingtonPost.com, we’re going to hear many complain that Romney was “insufficiently conservative.” But look at what happened this week in the Senate: “Hard right” Republican candidates suffered a “near wipeout.” Doubling down on harsh social conservatism and absolutist rhetoric will not be a winning strategy. The American people have had it with GOP extremism, said David Horsey in the Los Angeles Times. As long as Republicans continue to let resentment-filled talk-radio blowhards like Rush Limbaugh and religious zealots define the party as anti-science, anti-feminist, anti-gay, and anti-Hispanic, “they are doomed to become a party of the past.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us