Report: How GOP lost young voters

[brooklynite]

Source: Politico

A new postmortem on the November elections from the nation’s leading voice for college Republicans offers a searing indictment of the GOP “brand” and the major challenges the party faces in wooing young voters, according to a copy given exclusively to POLITICO.

The College Republican National Committee on Monday will make public a detailed report — the result of extensive polling and focus groups — dissecting what went wrong for Republicans with young voters in the 2012 elections and how the party can improve its showing with that key demographic in the future.

...snip...

Titled the “Grand Old Party for a Brand New Generation,” the report is sharply critical of the GOP on several fronts. The study slams some Republicans’ almost singular focus on downsizing Big Government and cutting taxes; candidates’ use of offensive, polarizing rhetoric; and the party’s belly-flop efforts at messaging and outreach, even as the report presents a way forward and, at times, strikes an optimistic tone.

Read more: http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=47D81FDF-F698-468B-A4B4-004B8005129B

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Benghazi!

[Warpy]

1. The policy of debt peonage for young people is what flopped

A whole generation of college grads is financially crippled because their parents weren't paid enough to get them educated, leaving them scrambling for overpriced student loans to get the job done.

Now they have nothing to look forward to but years of paying that debt off if they're the lucky 50% to get jobs they were trained for, unable to think about buying homes and raising kids because they're giving so much of their income to the bankers.

The GOP is being blamed for this, but fiscal conservatives in both parties pursued the policies of depressed wages for workers and removing many of the subsidies of state colleges, the mainstay of poorer students, while making sure the interest rates on student loans stayed punishingly high.

Debt peonage has been the root cause of many revolutions over millennia. The Republicans never saw it coming and neither will the bankers. Let's just hope we're allowed a peaceful one.

[fitman]

13. I was a conservative republican at one time...

starting seeing the light maybe 8-9 years ago. Changed over time. Now, I am middle of the road fiscally/lean left on social issues.

Not one thing changed me but little things that added up. RW sites I visited where I saw blatant lies about things I did know about career wise, Beck/Hannity/Limbaugh pushing lies over the years-not being called out on it, people I knew who were hardcore RW bible thumpers very involved in my church who would tell me they were visited by the Bureau of Worker Comp "darkies" at their business-blatant racism.

[ElizabethWarren2016]

17. I changed.

I've always considered myself socially progressive.

But in 2005, I called myself economically conservative libertarian.
In 2008, I began to call myself economically moderate.
In 2011, I began to call myself economically progressive.

Now, I'm an adamant Elizabeth Warren supporter.

[go west young man]

2. They seem to be blind to the fact

they were wrong on every policy issue in the last 15 years, crashed the economy, and deceived the American people to start an illegal war in Iraq. Maybe the American people remember those things too. Apparently these young republicans are alright with those things, which makes them all the more ridiculous.

[cap]

3. Headline: GOP Candidates to Get Their Wives to Say Nice Things

to try to soften their husband's images. We should be nice to gays, help out at food banks, have a Cinco de Maya party, wear a sombrero, do abstinence only campaigns and purity balls, yada yada yada

[callous taoboy]

4. The Mepublcians I work with and under at my job

use similar divisive / offensive tactics with similar results: Nobody trusts them, and nobody holds them in high esteem.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. More than doubling student loan rates will help them, I'm sure.

[brooklynite]

6. So, you think all these people should be in College?

To quote Rick Santorum, "what a snob..."

[toby jo]

7. Cynical, but , the sex appeal thing. A young, vibrant candidate v. old fogey.

Paul Ryan v an old white Dem would probably help them out. Duval would keep us in, he's got it in spades.

I need policy, but youth is mindful of different things.

[Evasporque]

8. GOP: "Get these damn kids off my grass!"....nt

[Kablooie]

15. You'd rather they be on your cocaine?

[Myrina]

9. The Trust Fund yuppie brats are all moving offshore & opting not to vote?

[Berlum]

10. "Plus we are really sick of paid Republican liars." - Young Voters

"The Fox-Limbaugh-O'Reilly chickenhawk, viagra-popping, toe-tapping, diaper-sex-diddling liars are, when you come right down to it, disgustipating. No honor whatsoever in the GOP. Those assclowns and their MoneyBagger 1% Republican Puppetmasters need to get their heads out of their butts and think -- for once -- about America."

- Young Disgustipated Voters

[alp227]

12. As a young voter I just cannot see myself voting for the religious right & corporate party.

Especially because of "legitimate rape" and crazies like Bachmann and Gohmert. Here is the least bigoted remark out Gohmert's mouth:

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/05/24/2055311/gohmert-fetal-abnormalities-abortion-bill/

[1StrongBlackMan]

14. What I find interesting …

In the report is the stunning lack of self-awareness … They repeatedly indicate, throughout the report, on every issue that “people agree with them on the issue; but the people do not believe the gop’s policies reflect a solution on the issue.” So their response to the deficit? Better communication of their position on the issue.
It’s kind of like, everyone agreeing that your hand is cut and the gop wants to better communicate how bandaging your foot will help.

[brooklynite]

16. Here's another juicy nugget...

"In focus groups in January, the report said, young voters were asked to list leaders of the Democratic Party. “They named prominent former or currently elected officials: Pelosi, the Clintons, Obama, Kennedy, Gore. When those same respondents were asked to name Republican leaders, they focused heavily on media personalities and commentators: Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck.”"

[yurbud]

18. young people are getting screwed by rich worse than the rest of us & aren't afraid of gays...

Muslims, blacks, Latinos, or whoever.

They also don't go to church as much.

The only angle Republicans can play is protecting kids right to go on a shooting rampage in their school with a fully auto assault rifle with a drum magazine.

But kids who are planning on doing that probably aren't spending much time voting.