I’ve been a lifelong Republican, but this time I voted for Obama. The Republican Party started to lose me with the southern strategy of exploiting racial fears, the Karl Rove strategy of energizing the evangelical base, while alienating moderates and fiscal conservatives, etc. Still, I stuck with it for a long time, voting for George Bush twice.
At this point, I do not feel that the Republican Party represents people like me anymore. With or without immigration, demographics will inexorably lead to a direction in which race baiting becomes increasingly counterproductive. I cannot truckle to religious conservatives who push for the teaching of creationism in schools, or the abandonment of stem cell research. Other hot-button items such as the question of abortion, are also losing favor. As we’ve seen from ballot initiatives, a lot more people promise to vote pro-life than actually do. These are not winning platforms.
A lot of things favored the Democrats in this election, so this win is by no means earth-shattering. But I do believe the Republican Party will find it increasingly hard to accommodate both religious fundamentalists, and the growing number of centrist or moderate Republicans, who believe in fiscal conservativism and a strong defense, but not in the religious issues. I think this difference will only grow with age-related turnover, as the younger generation replaces us.
