It wasn't the messenger, it was the message

To the editor:

Well, it’s all over but the shouting. Turns out that Nate Silver was right and Karl Rove, Gallup, and Rasmussen were wrong.

Just a few thoughts on why things turned out the way they did.  

I’m convinced that the Republicans really believe that most Americans are only interested in how much money they can make and ensuring everyone plays by the rules they have decided are the important ones.

They really think the reason American didn’t vote for Romney is because he just wasn’t conservative enough. That if they only had a better candidate to deliver the message the results would have been different. Boy, were they wrong.

Why would anyone expect a woman to vote for a party that tries to insert itself between her and her doctors? Todd Akin lost by 15 points in a state where Romney led by 10 points. Richard Mourdock lost by 6 points in a state that gave Romney a 10-point lead. I wonder why.

Additionally, very few votes were garnered from this demographic by the party that continues to insist women who do the same job don’t deserve the same pay as men.    

You can’t build border fences, demand to see proof of citizenship from those who don’t look like you, make English the only allowable language and expect Hispanic voters – 10 percent of the electorate and increasing every day – to vote for a party that supports those actions.  
You can’t expect same-sex couples to vote for a party that tells them they are second-class citizens and don’t deserve the same rights as other couples.  

You also can’t expect votes from the increasing number of Americans who support their struggle for equality. Ten of Josh Mandel’s wife's cousins took out an ad condemning his stance on gays. I wonder who they voted for? Three states passed same-sex marriage laws and the one state that tried to outlaw it lost that battle. Are you paying attention?

You can’t expect young people to vote for a party that ignores them as a demographic because it’s common knowledge they just won’t bother to vote because they don’t care and are more interested in partying than politics.  

They do care, and unfortunately for the Republicans, they are probably the most astute, informed generation ever. You can’t say “tax cuts for everyone and we’ll cut the deficit!” and expect them to just believe it. They will check. They accounted for 19 percent of the electorate in this election, up 1 percent more than the last election. 

I also wonder what the results would have been if Republicans had not tried to game the system by restricting early voting and requiring voter IDs to solve a nonexistent problem.

The attempt at voter suppression was so blatantly obvious that in my opinion, it actually energized the Democratic base as much as the Obama campaign. I also wonder how many seniors just gave up after waiting in line for 4 or 5 hours.  

Finally, there is the Internet.  

A plethora of sites like snopes.com, factcheck.org, politifact.com, truthorfiction.com and opensecrets.org provide easy access to information about the validity of claims made by politicians and pundits and provides perspective beyond a single out of context quote. 
 
Voters are no longer limited to depending on mass mailings, telephone solicitations and TV/newspaper ads for their information. The Internet is where most people are turning to for information.  

Unfortunately for politicians and pundits of all descriptions, it can’t be controlled. If the “47-percent” video had been limited to the media of the 20th century, very few people would have seen it – it could have been easily buried with lawsuits. However, because of the Internet, a very small minority haven’t seen it. Welcome to the age of transparency!!

If Republicans want to win any national elections, they are going to have to face the facts.

Rigid, stratified, authoritarian and regressive social policies and negative attitudes are not going win votes.  

A majority of Americans – women, minorities, gays, young people and those that support any and all of the above – heard your message loud and clear. We didn’t like it.

It wasn’t the messenger, it was the message.  

Sincerely, 
John Tallieu 
Hillsboro