My biggest fear about the GOP - they are going to wise up about social issues [View all]

[LynneSin]

A few decades ago you could say something like 'Abortions' or 'Gays getting Married' and easily scare some undecided voters into voting for the Republicans. But fortunately our country is evolving and these ideas aren't as 'scary' as they use to be ages ago. Even my own parents, who I would have considered 'anti-gay' back in the 80s & 90s now say it's none of their business as long as it's consenting adults. Fortunately attitudes are evolving on many of these social issues.

And yet the GOP still uses these old-fashioned scare tactics thinking that today's voting population thinks the same way they did back decades ago. And this type of campaigning is starting to hurt the GOP. A perfect example is the 2012 senate races. Democrats had twice as many senate seats to keep this past election and yet the managed to make a net gain of +2, a pretty amazing feat. And one of the big factors that helped the democrats was the voters turning off from those candidates who still think it's ok to degrade women, gays & minorities as what is destroying our country.

Thing is this - IF republicans were to give up their war on women, gays & minorities and in fact embrace these groups, I know I for one still wouldn't vote for the GOP. Sure I'd be grateful that they finally embrace equality for all but in the end they'd still fight to give tax cuts to the wealthiest while cutting benefits for those who need it the most.

But consider this. Say that Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, both GOP losers in their 2012 run for the senate, never made disparaging comments about women and rape. If they never made those comments my guess is that both of them would have won their election. Akin was polling strong against incumbant Claire McCaskill (d) who was considered one of the most vulnerable of the democrat incumbants and Indiana was looking solid red in 2012 (they voted for Romney).

I have to think that as the GOP recovers from 2012 and asks themselves 'What went wrong' they are going to realize that they need to start rethinking their stance on social issues if they want to win elections. If this happens, although grateful for their changes in these areas, they are still not to be trusted with the keys to the piggy bank.