Mitt Romney received 59 percent of the white vote, and whites comprised 72 percent of all voters. This in and of itself was a huge advantage, and if the Republicans had been at all competitive with the minority vote, should have guaranteed his victory, even given the advantage President Obama had with women voters. But it didn't. The two most influential conservative pundits correctly pointed out what had happened, but it's glaringly obvious that neither understood exactly why it had happened.
First, Rush Limbaugh:
I went to bed thinking last night that we are outnumbered. I went to bed last night thinking [about] all this discussion we'd had about this election being the election that will tell us whether or not we've lost the country. I went to bed last night thinking we've lost the country. I don't know how else you look at this. The first wave of exit polls came in at 5 o'clock. I looked at it. I read the first two pages and I said to myself, "this is utter BS" and I forwarded the exit poll data that I had to three or four people and my message to each of them: "this is utter BS and if it isn't then we've lost the country"
Rush Limbaugh was in utter denial, wallowing in the first stage of GOP grief as described in this rather brilliant article in The Daily Beast. But it was Bill O'Reilly who first began to put together what had happened:
“The white establishment is now the minority, and the voters, many of them, feel that the economic system is stacked against them and they want stuff. You are going to see a tremendous Hispanic vote for President Obama. Overwhelming black vote for President Obama. And women will probably break President Obama's way. People feel that they are entitled to things and which candidate, between the two, is going to give them things?”
“The demographics are changing. It’s not a traditional America anymore.”
But neither of them really understands where the real disconnect between the GOP and America's minorities lay. Again, Rush Limbaugh:
“Let me take you back to the Republican convention. We had Susan Martinez, female Hispanic governor of New Mexico. We had Condoleeza Rice, African American, former secretary of state. Both of those people, eminently qualified, terrifically achieved; they have reached the pinnacles of their profession.
We had Marco Rubio. We had a parade of minorities who have become successful Americans, and they all had a common story: hard work. Their parents sacrificed for them…. They worked hard…their stories evoked pride."
This is the first point: Limbaugh, and so many other Republicans, saw a "parade of minorities." The rest of us saw it for what it was: Republican tokenism. Is this really so different from Romney's disastrous "binders full of women"? There's a big difference between tokenism and true acceptance, and that difference was glaringly obvious in the generally lily-white nature of every Republican political rally as opposed to the racial and cultural spread that characterized Democratic rallies.
Article comments
1 - Doug Hunter
Not bad for you Glenn. To your last paragraph, I like gridlock. We did great with a Republican congress/house and a Democratic president in the 90's, we need a repeat performance this go round. I shudder when either party gets the bulletproof congress/presidency simultaneously, just know one sided dumb shit is gonna get rammed through.
2 - Dr. Joseph S. Maresca
The story of this election is that people don't want more expensive wars in the future. The public
recognizes that we had a balanced budget until the Iraq and Afghan wars. That's first. Second,
the soccer moms are having a difficult time paying off college tuitions and mortgages on coop
apartments and houses. I think they feared a return to higher interest rates on major purchases.
The public recognizes that both Presidents Bush had good representation of women and minorities
in the cabinet. That wasn't the issue. The issue was how the government spends its money. The
electorate said loud and clear that they want more money spent on domestic issues and lowering
the debt. This is the basic lesson of Election 2012. Mitt Romney lost by 3 million votes. Even
with a minority person or woman on the ticket, I believe he still would have lost with the message
provided in this campaign. i.e. cutting taxes and increasing the military
3 - Igor
Excellent article, Glenn.
The only political party I've ever belonged to was the Republicans, and I might join again if they reformed themselves. Certainly, I am in sync with many of their principles. But they've double-crossed me so many times...
4 - Glenn Contrarian
Kudos to the editor - and the title was much better than the one I submitted.