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Many Republicans & Conservatives have done much soul searching since Tuesday's presidential election concerning how BO won reelection & what they could have done differently. There are many avenues to go down in this regard including the inexcusable one about the Republicans not having a good ground game. Getting demolished by the Hispanic vote is another.
Based on exit polls the Hispanic share of the electorate increased from 2000 to 2012 when it represented 10% of the electorate. This increase in & of itself is not the problem. The top graphic above shows the downtrend in Hispanic votes for the GOP. The problem is that BO got the support of 69% of Hispanics in 2008 & that support increased to 73% in 2012. The Hispanic vote decided the elections in @ least Florida, Virginia, Colorado, & Nevada.
The best authority I know re Hispanics' influence on election results let it slip a few months ago that Mitt would lose the election if he did not get a higher percent of Hispanic votes that McCain got in 2008. McCain received 31% & Mitt's share fell further to an abysmal 27%.
The second graphic above shows more directly another problem. The Cuban-American vote for Republicans has fallen by a third since 2000. This is attributed to the influence of the older generations dying off & being replaced by people who have a natural affinity for the apparent benefits of the Democrat Party.
A high percentage of Cuban-Americans are highly educated & successful in business & as such there is a degree of tension between Cuban-Americans & some other Hispanic groups. This fact does not help the rising Cuban-American Republican star Senator Marco Rubio win over Hispanics in general. I know of this tension first hand having worked for a Cuban-American engineer & also having many Cuban-American friends who were engineers & designers.
TV pundits have spent the past several days giving many wrong-headed opinions re how the Republican Party can reverse their skid not only with Hispanics but also with blacks, single women, young people, & the poor – all of whom strongly supported BO & also are government dependent to one degree or another. The emphasis should not be on how to restore the Republican Party to its once prominent position but rather how to move America forward from the pit we are in. This results of Tuesday's election clearly shows the two-party system no longer works for America – even the strictest Republican has to admit it failed this last time.
People are people & I believe that most, but certainly not all, would prefer having a real life rather than merely existing waiting for the next government handout. We are doomed if a significant number of the people who voted for BO would turn down the self-respect of having a meaningful job that supports their families.
As Governor Romney stated in his concession speech "the principles upon which this nation was founded are the only sure guide to a resurgent economy & to a renewed greatness." The immediate problem that has to be admitted before it can be corrected is that the majority of the electorate just voted against this principle.
In order to turn around the anti-American result of Tuesday's election the over 1-million people who voted for Gary Johnson plus the 58-million people who voted for Mitt plus the additional 2-million people who voted for McCain in 2008 who did not vote for Mitt in 2012 (I know there is some overlap in these figures) must get back to basics – & this starts with the education of our youth. The young people who voted for BO are not dumb – they just don't know anything – especially about our founding. Jay Leno & Jesse Waters prove this every time they present a video asking young people simple questions re America' heritage. Although these videos can be humorous the young people in them who vote are as much, if not more, to blame for Tuesday's result than any one else. People aged 18 to 29 made up almost 20% of the electorate & 60% of them voted for BO.
We must ensure that our youth is knowledgeable about our heritage & history. Parents – don't accept any excuses. If the schools are not teaching America's founding principles & heritage the way you think they should be taught than home school your children accordingly @ night. Parents & concerned citizens can also run for election to their school boards plus any number of other innovative ways to get involved including joining or starting PTAs & PTOs. If the teachers' unions are a hindrance work around them yourselves or with private tutors. We need our youth to have a bedrock foundation re our heritage not one of quicksand like we have today. If young people don't have the foundation to know what they are missing they will never miss it.
Simultaneous to the needed improvements to the education of our youth we need new candidates who know & can articulate the message of the benefits, including having a more fulfilling life itself, of returning to the excellence of our founding principles (particularly self responsibility & free enterprise) so that the government-dependent people can more readily recognize the inevitable economic collapse of the country BO has in mind for them & all of us. The establishment Republican Party has not run a candidate for president since 1984 that met this standard.
The above prescription requires work - especially from people who know in their heart of hearts that they did not fulfill their civic duty over the years – a duty that is required to keep America free. The speed with which America can be turned around is a function of how fast BO's supporters see that his plans are not in their best interest & how fast an inspirational leader comes forward to offer an alternative of substance. The current government-dependent mindset that is so entrenched has to be changed. We can use the economy continuing to stall as a weapon in our favor – painful as it is for the people who just voted for it. But with the right leader we can reverse course – once the entrepreneurial spirit is truly released following libertarian principles & people are put back to work in meaningful jobs the piddling $16-trillion debt & all of our other economic problems will disappear quickly.
In this regard I am glad to say that current Congressman Mike Pence (favorably highlighted on this blog for years) was just elected Governor of Indiana. Governor-elect Pence (had considered a run for president in 2012 but instead ran for governor) has all of the traits (including being able to speak) of leadership we need – he is graded "A" by the National Taxpayers Union & like most of such people is a long time FairTax supporter. The type of inspirational message Mike is capable of delivering coupled with some executive experience as governor would put us on the desired path to prosperity four years from now.
Governor-elect Pence is the type of leader I am looking for – not one of the many currently being talked about who fit some ethnic, racial, or gender classification or are favored for some other politically correct reason made for TV – but rather Mike is one of merit, substance, & accomplishment.
But speaking about the next four years let's not forget that elections have consequences & the American people just reelected the biggest enemy this country has had since King George lll. We are in a hole & it will get deeper before we see our way out of it. BO is a foe, not just another patriot with different freedom loving ways & ideas, but rather a foe who intends to continue his destructive plan of having the America we grew up in vanish right before our eyes until it becomes irreclaimable.
