tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12703782.post2609788196925589165..comments2020-04-11T03:30:02.282-05:00Gary R. Welshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15185079937305083438noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12703782.post-91367986121313231522008-11-30T21:08:00.000-05:002008-11-30T21:08:00.000-05:00Honestly, I think the Republican base is dying off of old age and being drowned out by younger voters.<BR/><BR/>Nation-wide, 18% of the electorate this year was 18-29 and they voted 2 to 1 for Obama, they made up 18% of the electorate.<BR/><BR/>65 and older made up only 16% of the electorate, and voted for McCain more heavily than Obama, but only 54% voted for McCain.<BR/><BR/>Demographically, every age group in between was around 50% for each candidate, plus or minus a percent.<BR/><BR/>So we can take from this that the youth vote is bigger than it ever was before, voted 2/3rds in Obama's favor, and counterbalanced the elderly demographic who will usually vote for any Republican with a pulse, meaning John McCain even did poorly among them.<BR/><BR/>Quite frankly, I don't buy the whole Center-Right nation argument, if anything, the country has become massively more to the left over the last 20 years.<BR/><BR/>In 1980, a Democrat wouldn't even talk about gay rights and have a snowball's chance in hell.<BR/><BR/>In 1980, the quickest political suicide for a Republican would be to have the news media find out her 17 year old daughter is unmarried and pregnant, now it just makes them "more human".<BR/><BR/>There's more, but this country is either Centrist or leans left these days.<BR/><BR/>At any rate, it wasn't JUST any demographic that gave it to Obama, because he outperformed Kerry by every benchmark, but the youth vote had much to do with it.<BR/><BR/>I saw on the news a line of young people about to vote and they said that another Republican scared them because we'd probably go to war with Iran and end up drafting people...let that sink in for a minute.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12703782.post-58561793861449041822008-11-08T15:04:00.000-05:002008-11-08T15:04:00.000-05:00Gary, I couldn't agree with you more. Ironically Bush and McCain have two of the more reasonable voices in the Republican Party on the issue of immigration reform.<BR/><BR/>The fact is the immigration system, as you know, is broken. Too many Republicans don't even want to consider fixing the immigration system so it relects reality and the need of the economy for low-skilled workers which is driving much of the immigration. They'd much rather demagogue on the subject because to do so is politically popular. Well it's not popular with Hispanics and Republicans can ill-afford to turn those folks off.Paul K. Ogdenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16137003328850866711noreply@blogger.com