Wrong debate

I think the media is presenting the wrong post-election debate.  They're going on and on about electoral constituencies according to race, religion, ethnicity, etc.  I don't think a successful presidential candidate needs to win the Hispanic vote or the Catholic vote or the Asian vote or whatever.

Instead, I think the issue really is economic class.  I think Obama won because a lot of lower and lower-middle class voters voted for him because they absolutely could not identify with Romney.  It's true that Romney was seen as other, but not primarily because he was white male.  People are accustomed to being ruled by white males, and are perfectly willing to vote for white males (arguably Obama himself is a white male).  Romney lost, I think, because he lost too much of the lower economic spectrum.

So I think the problem for the Republican party is this:  They have built an enormous platform about one key issue: lowering taxes.  But for a lot of Americans, lowering taxes isn't the issue - it's having enough money to worry about taxes - it's having a job - it's getting a living wage - it's getting off unemployment, getting off the dole, and not being afraid of ever going back on the dole again.

And Romney (with his infamous 47% remark) told all those out-of-work or part-time-work people that HE DIDN'T CARE ABOUT THEM.  Moreover, the Republican party is telling the bottom economic classes that THE REPUBLICAN PARTY DOESN'T CARE ABOUT THEM.

And because of the rising INCOME INEQUALITY, the lower economic classes are becoming MORE AND MORE IMPORTANT POLITICALLY. 

The Republican Party has put itself in the untenable position of TRYING TO KEEP POOR PEOPLE AWAY FROM THE VOTING BOOTH.

And that, I believe, rather than the Hispanic or whatever vote, is what is going to kill the party.

The Tea Party members are all middle class people.  They have jobs and they think they're well paid.  But they mistakenly think that most Americans are like them - regard themselves as solidly in the middle class WITH NO FEAR OF FALLING INTO A LOWER ECONOMIC CLASS.

The people with this fear will choose to vote for the party they perceive will allay that fear.  Right now that's the Democrats.

Put another way, the Republicans have failed to demonstrate that cutting taxes will create jobs.