will the Republican party be relevant in future elections?

But will Hilary Clinton or Joe Biden in 2016 inspire the minority vote to come out hard? Who are the young Dem guns to inspire a nation like Barack did in 2008?

Julian Castro and his brother are very impressive, as are many of the up and comers. But what the GOP does not get, it is not necessarily the messenger, it is the message itself that brings out the voters.

Hopefully this election will serve as a wake up call to the GOP and that some of power is removed from the mossbacks. Here is to hoping that groups like the Rocky Mountain Black Conservatives and the Colorado Hispanic Republicans continue to grow and have a strong voice.

Grady, to be hones I hope they do, but there does need to be some real soul searching down to where the far right even gets their message/information.... here is an interesting article. Basically shows where the information on the right was so far off base.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc ... le/264855/


Yes, from a left leaning site (somewhat) but everything leans left when all you look at is fox news/news max and others.


To be honest, we need to start to come together.... not sure how that happens but it's not by blasting each other, calling each other names and denigrating each others ideologies.
Can we start having open and functional discussions? I hope so... lets try not hating but try talking to each other like neighbors who disagree, that is what we can do. You guys don't hate this country neither does LJ and others on the left.

I am not a 'everything the democratic part does is right' not a 'everything the republican party does is wrong' person, but I do think the republicans do need to get back to a true 'conservative' mentality. Cranking up religious folks againt abortion and GLBT rights issues helps no one except the extremes. The country is changing, you can't hold that back. The world is changing, and it's a world we need to exist in. The whole 'Obama is a socialist who wants to destroy our country ' crap needs to stop.

I believe in energy independence, why? It helps on many levels. Will there be costs? Failures? Sure! But that should not be reasons to stop.
Oil needs to flow, we need to maximize what we do have as we try and work alternatives.... no doubt.
Natural gas, it's an abundant clean resource

Cut government spending... how? Fvck TSA, scew Homeland Security, These albatross-like programs take away freedoms and cost a shit-ton of cabbage.... find a better way beside removing OUR freedoms.

There are many other ways we can cut but until things start to really get cranked up with our economy lets leave the social safety net alone.. and it will, for now. As things get better, those cost will go down. Once they do, re-examine then. These programs are a small bit of our deficit.

WE need to get more money into the hands of the middle class, they are the engine that will continue to drive this recovery. I know everyone thinks the rich will spend moreif you give them cuts... guess what, there is enough data out there that proves they don't, they don't hire any more, they don't spend any more, they put it away. They save it. NOt that bad of a thing, but it does not warrant the cuts. Help the middle class and they rich WILL get richer.. it will happen. Their profits go up etc. Everyone benefits from a strong economy.

This is a start, I know many of you will want to knock holes in it, go ahead. Just please try and not use name calling and stereo-typing. I will promise one thing. I will do my best not to get back into that rut and if everyone (left/right) does... maybe this board can get back to arguing about policy and not such inane bullshit that it has devolved into as of late.

Obama is not a socialist.... things are getting better, we were in one hell of a recession and could slip back into it if we just do the same old shit, Or we can actually recognize that we all are Americans, both sides have valid points and maybe, just maybe there is room for functional compromise. I also believe we should demand compromise from our elected officials.... we need things to move. These stalemates are not doing the job.

Something the Dog Said wrote: Julian Castro and his brother are very impressive, as are many of the up and comers. But what the GOP does not get, it is not necessarily the messenger, it is the message itself that brings out the voters.

????? Huh? What message? The only message they brought out was "romney is a rich white guy who is gonna push grandma over the cliff". Not once did I see an ad showing what Obama was for. There was no message other than scare tactics. (of course, maybe that is the message you meant)

"romney is a rich white guy who is gonna push grandma over the cliff"

My first laugh today.

Fox 31 Eli Stokols brought out many good points in his column today.

"Viewers and listeners so wrapped up inside that bubble with obsessive coverage of Benghazi didn’t realize how out of line they were with the rest of the country. In Colorado, conservatives dismissing the work of pollster Chris Keating on the grounds that he’s worked for Hickenlooper and Udall, overlooked a series of polls that were spot-on. A day before the election, Keating had Obama leading Romney 50-46; it was a four-point win for Obama, 52-48, in the end."

We saw that here, where conservatives were so obsessed with their perception of Benghazi, that they failed to notice the rest of the country did not follow their obsession.

"Living within that conservative echo chamber doesn’t seem to serve viewers all that well, given that insulating oneself from reality only works for so long. Feigning confidence, hoping it’ll become a self-fulfilling prophecy, while ignoring or dismissing massive amounts of polling data because it doesn’t add up to a positive outcome — none of it seems to serve viewers all that well in the end, much less American democracy. Even the Romney campaign was drinking the conservative media Kool-Aid, with aides acknowledging Wednesday what was plainly evident from the candidate’s halfhearted, hastily thrown together concession speech — that they truly expected they would win.
As Rick Perry said, “Oops.”"

Again, we've seen that here. Rush Limbaugh, CNS, Worldnet, etc. do not represent the reality that we live in. Their views are not the mainstream views of America.

"In total, four conservative nonprofits and the business industry’s lead trade association spent nearly $300 million on political efforts since 2011, accounting for 70 percent of the so-called “dark money” reported to have been spent in a presidential race their candidate would lose by more than 100 electoral votes. Adding insult to injury: they’re now looking at a significant tax hike. Enough said."

Yep, enough said.


" Since 2004, when Democrats began string of statewide wins that continues to this day, Colorado has been considered an increasingly “purple” state, one that’s neither solidly Republican red nor Democratic blue. After Tuesday night, when Obama carried Colorado by four points despite the still sagging economy, some Republicans lamented another election cycle’s worth of evidence confirming that the state is now effectively blue. “I have to go back a decade to remember the last time we won a statewide race,” said former GOP state Rep. Rob Witwer.
Colorado Republicans are also looking at a still barren bench of viable statewide candidates. Former congressman Bob Beauprez, who served as the chief cheerleader and emcee for the Romney campaign in Colorado, could benefit from so much time back on the stump before conservative audiences; he may be the party’s best option to take on Sen. Mark Udall in 2014. A few months ago, Colorado’s GOP Chairman Ryan Call told me he considered legislative candidates Lang Sias, who challenged Sen. Evie Hudak, D-Westminster, and Brian Watson, who took on Rep. Daniel Kagan, D-Denver, to be rising stars within the party. Here’s the thing Call wasn’t counting on — both Sias and Watson lost Tuesday night (although Sias trails Hudak by just 105 votes as of Wednesday morning, it’s unlikely he’d overcome that margin in the final count). It’s tough to be a viable statewide candidate down the road if you can’t get elected to the statehouse. Paging Josh Penry?"

Again, enough said.

RenegadeCJ wrote:

Something the Dog Said wrote: Julian Castro and his brother are very impressive, as are many of the up and comers. But what the GOP does not get, it is not necessarily the messenger, it is the message itself that brings out the voters.

????? Huh? What message? The only message they brought out was "romney is a rich white guy who is gonna push grandma over the cliff". Not once did I see an ad showing what Obama was for. There was no message other than scare tactics. (of course, maybe that is the message you meant)

Which of course is total BS. You need to watch and read something other than right wing echo chambers.

The Obama message for the past four years has been empathy for the lower and middle income classes, equal rights for minorities including gays, lower the burden on lower and middle classes, health care available for everyone, reform against the excesses of the banking and wall street, focus on America and jobs in America.

Your message? tax cuts for the wealthiest, increased taxes for the middle class.

Republicans are going to fry him for Libya. There most likely will be some big time hearings on that.

And as far as libs thinking that now republicans have to do soul searching and change their ways. The same thing was said when Bush won two elections. Major traumas to countries are the only thing that changes things. 9/11 caused Bush to be elected because of fear. Obama used fear. A depression will change things. Just wait for that one big "thing" to come.

But I am serious about this one. I read several articles about more kids living at home. They are happy living at home and working part time right now. If they live on their own with no safety net, this would not have happened. When their parents die and they have no where else to live it will change. My kids generation are a bunch of kids that don't like to work. (generally of course). They don't have to either. When they finally have to pay their own way I predict this wave will change. It always does. A major event will do it. But for now most people seem happy enough. Those who work will either give up or keep paying for it. Let's see what happens.

Romney's message of I will get you back to work only appealed to those that are hard workers being nickled and dimed by the bad economy and inflation and the majority don't have to work anymore. So, there you go.

CinnamonGirl wrote: Romney's message of I will get you back to work only appealed to those that are hard workers being nickled and dimed by the bad economy and inflation and the majority don't have to work anymore.

God, I hope you keep hanging on to that.... For at LEAST the next four years... PLEASE.

CinnamonGirl wrote: Republicans are going to fry him for Libya. There most likely will be some big time hearings on that.

And as far as libs thinking that now republicans have to do soul searching and change their ways. The same thing was said when Bush won two elections. Major traumas to countries are the only thing that changes things. 9/11 caused Bush to be elected because of fear. Obama used fear. A depression will change things. Just wait for that one big "thing" to come.

But I am serious about this one. I read several articles about more kids living at home. They are happy living at home and working part time right now. If they live on their own with no safety net, this would not have happened. When their parents die and they have no where else to live it will change. My kids generation are a bunch of kids that don't like to work. (generally of course). They don't have to either. When they finally have to pay their own way I predict this wave will change. It always does. A major event will do it. But for now most people seem happy enough. Those who work will either give up or keep paying for it. Let's see what happens.

Romney's message of I will get you back to work only appealed to those that are hard workers being nickled and dimed by the bad economy and inflation and the majority don't have to work anymore. So, there you go.

There were "big time" hearings on Benghazi, remember? Most Americans prefer to review the results of a fair and impartial investigation before rushing to judgement or to politicize terrible tragedies. As far as fear, that is a Republican concept. Hope is the Democratic concept. The President was able to keep us out of a depression according to most if not all credible economists. As to your kid's generation's work ethic, that is instilled at a familial level, not ordained by government. Personal responsibility begins at home and is taught by what should be their role models which would be their parents.

As to Romney's message, while possibly being aspirational, certainly failed in providing details. His message was actually I will get back to you later on what I will do.

I don't know what world you live in, but in my world, the majority of Americans do work, and they work hard. I will not insult the majority of Americans and call them lazy, worthless, deadbeats because that simply is not true. My fellow Americans are incredibly hard workers and believe in the future of America.