The rise of Millennials—who are more ethnically and racially diverse and more secular than any generation in American history—is making America a far more culturally tolerant nation than it was when Ronald Reagan, or even George W. Bush, occupied the White House. For the Republican presidential candidates, that means they’re starting from behind. They begin the 2016 race burdened by their party’s reputation for intolerance, a reputation that becomes more politically costly every year as the result of generational change.
In such an environment, Republicans do not have the luxury of caution. They can’t afford to run like Mitt Romney, whose pandering to the GOP base during the primaries doomed him with younger and minority voters in the general election. One lesson of Bill Clinton’s election in 1992—an election in which Clinton endorsed welfare reform, attacked George H.W. Bush from the right on foreign policy, flew back to Arkansas from the campaign trail to execute a mentally retarded ******** and picked a fight with an African-American rapper who mused about ******* white people—is that when your party’s base is out of touch with most of the country, you must publicly challenge that base or else be lumped together with it.
Yet the Republican candidates are running like this is their election to lose. It’s not. The economy is improving. Obamacare is growing more popular. Middle class Americans are angrier at the rich than the poor. And culturally, the country is racing left. Winning presidential candidates are smart enough to sense the country’s mood at a given moment in time and bold enough to channel it, even when that entails risk. The last two weeks offered GOP candidates a crucial opportunity to do that. And they blew it, every one.
The average age of a white American is 43, the oldest in our history.
Millennials make up more than a quarter of our entire population with around 83 million whereas baby boomers are only 72%. America is continually growing faster and faster and today for the first time in history the minority of **** 10 and under is white, NOT brown. In 15 years the US will have a minority-majority. Many states already have it and many more are right on the verge. What then for the GOP which is nearly all white, old, religious and out of date?
The answer is doom. They are on their death bed. There will always be the wealthy who will hang on to hopes and they will no doubt still control the government for a little while because 95% of the wealth gained since 2000 has gone to the wealthiest 1% of our population. That won't change until we finally get someone like Bernie Sanders in office. I predict we'll have a Socialist president by 2024.
In such an environment, Republicans do not have the luxury of caution. They can’t afford to run like Mitt Romney, whose pandering to the GOP base during the primaries doomed him with younger and minority voters in the general election. One lesson of Bill Clinton’s election in 1992—an election in which Clinton endorsed welfare reform, attacked George H.W. Bush from the right on foreign policy, flew back to Arkansas from the campaign trail to execute a mentally retarded ******** and picked a fight with an African-American rapper who mused about ******* white people—is that when your party’s base is out of touch with most of the country, you must publicly challenge that base or else be lumped together with it.
Yet the Republican candidates are running like this is their election to lose. It’s not. The economy is improving. Obamacare is growing more popular. Middle class Americans are angrier at the rich than the poor. And culturally, the country is racing left. Winning presidential candidates are smart enough to sense the country’s mood at a given moment in time and bold enough to channel it, even when that entails risk. The last two weeks offered GOP candidates a crucial opportunity to do that. And they blew it, every one.
The average age of a white American is 43, the oldest in our history.
Millennials make up more than a quarter of our entire population with around 83 million whereas baby boomers are only 72%. America is continually growing faster and faster and today for the first time in history the minority of **** 10 and under is white, NOT brown. In 15 years the US will have a minority-majority. Many states already have it and many more are right on the verge. What then for the GOP which is nearly all white, old, religious and out of date?
The answer is doom. They are on their death bed. There will always be the wealthy who will hang on to hopes and they will no doubt still control the government for a little while because 95% of the wealth gained since 2000 has gone to the wealthiest 1% of our population. That won't change until we finally get someone like Bernie Sanders in office. I predict we'll have a Socialist president by 2024.
