On a platform of “good government services” and “working with the public,” The Young Republican National Federation(18-40-ish)are preferring to focus their message of the future on trickle down economics and civic involvement, and leave the nastiness of social issues, like poverty and political disenfranchisement– due to austerity and greed– to the bickering uncouth masses to sort out.
The country is becoming more urban and diverse, two details that favor Democrats. In 2012, blacks and Hispanics overwhelmingly went for the president; Obama also got 55% of the women’s vote, 60% of voters under 30 and almost 70% of the vote in cities with 500,000 people or more.
Worse than the numbers is the impression they make. In a recent study, another young GOP group, the College Republicans, put it bluntly: the GOP is seen as “closed-minded, racist, rigid, (and) old-fashioned.”
Don’t worry, they’ve got all the solutions. As outgoing chair Lisa Strickan who also “serves on the city council of Highland Heights, a Cleveland suburb,” explains the plight of the youth of today,
“You have a lot of people graduating college who are in serious debt and are having trouble finding a job, and if you asked them about social issues, they would say, ‘I’m having trouble surviving here.’”
“The social media, particularly for some low-information voters or younger voters, is important, just to keep up with the trends,” Stickan says.
Ah, crush their economy and they’ll come crawling back to you with pro-libertarian retweets.
Rep. Martha Roby of Alabama, a fellow Young Republican, says,
“Now, more than ever, our party needs bright young people engaged in meaningful conversation, with fresh ways to implement our conservative ideas,” she said. “Now is your turn.”
“It’s not about becoming Democrat-lite, it’s about staying true to the conservative principles we hold dear,” she said. “But we have to find a different way to talk about it.”
If you can’t explain your principles without getting your tongue caught in the rape & abortion cookie jar, maybe your principles need to be kicked in the balls.
Tyler Deaton’s is “a strong believer in low taxes, fiscal responsibility and civic involvement. He attended a Christian liberal arts school. He is a Republican.”
And he’s gay. See, Tyler thinks that the best path forward for the GOP is to be the ones who stop defending DOMA and DADT. Rather than giving any credit to a “Democrat” for trying to balance a budget while setting new civil rights standards, he’s gonna stand by his party of anti-gay religious woman-beater wackaloons.
The Young Republican National Federation chose as their keynote speaker this year to be Jeff Sessions(R-AL).