Young Republican Voters Don’t Connect with the GOP

A new study released yesterday points out the young voters don’t connect with the GOP. The College Republican National Committee used polling and focus groups to look at what went wrong in 2012 regarding reaching young voters.

The study follows another conducted in March by the Republican National Committee – and the findings are similar – the party is out of touch with many voters.

Some of the areas pointed out in the study as reported by Politco include:

• Gay marriage: “On the ‘open-minded’ issue … [w]e will face serious difficulty so long as the issue of gay marriage remains on the table.”
• Hispanics: “Latino voters … tend to think the GOP couldn’t care less about them.”
• Perception of the party’s economic stance: “We’ve become the party that will pat you on your back when you make it, but won’t offer you a hand to help you get there.”
• Big reason for the image problem: The “outrageous statements made by errant Republican voices.”
• Words that up-for-grabs voters associate with the GOP: “The responses were brutal: closed-minded, racist, rigid, old-fashioned.”

The report goes on to suggest some changes, but they seem rather minor.   In regard to gay marriage, the study suggests, “In the short-term, the party ought to promote the diversity of thought within its ranks and make clear that we welcome healthy debate on the policy topic at hand.”  It would have been refreshing if they had suggested many GOP talking heads stop quoting outdated or discredited studies or hide behind a religious ideology and not address a civil rights issue.  The report authors do state that they refrained from offering specific policy suggestions, leaving those up to elected officials.

On the whole, this is just another example of how the far right has hijacked the party and, if it doesn’t make serious changes, has headed it toward extinction.  I