Heading into the 2012 election, Republicans were convinced young voters under the age of 30 were no longer in President Barack Obama's corner, and they'd likely abandon him at the ballot box or simply not show up on Nov. 6. Considering Bureau of Labor Statistics data show young people have consistently held an unemployment rate as high as 10 percent, higher than other adult age groups since 2009, Mitt Romney gambled on making gains with the youth vote by simply talking about the economy and promising to get Americans back to work. Instead, voters ages 18 to 29 -- who made up 19 percent of the electorate, a greater share than in 2008, and half of whom cast a ballot, for the third presidential election in a row -- went for Obama by 60 percent to 36 percent for Romney. Now Republicans are faced with a grim premise as they look toward the future, with a much more racially diverse and socially liberal young voter base that supports Democrats by a large margin. "It's something Republicans need to worry about in the future, because they could lose that entire generation," said Paul Beck, a professor at The Ohio State University. It is true Obama's support among young voters dropped by 6 points from 2008, but it was still a 24 point margin over Romney. Yes, young people tend to be more liberal, but both George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan were able to win the youth vote. Obama's youth vote victories this year and in 2008 were the biggest wins among this demographic of any presidential candidate in recent history. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/12/youth-vote-gap-republican_n_2100155.html
The GOP is toast. Demographics, The Daily Show and the Colbert Report, science, the decline of religion, the internet, and the fact that people are just generally getting smarter means the Republican party is in big trouble. In today's world things are moving ever faster. A conservative, dogmatic stance will always be at a disadvantage to a progressive one.
When Nixon resigned the general consensus was the republican party was done forever and anyone under 30 would never vote republican again. A few years later Reagan crushed Carter in 1980 and Mondale was a national embarassment in 84. One thing that history has shown us is that those that predict the demise of one political party or the other don't have very good track records. This is not to say the republican party is not without it's problems, but not to worry. All they need to do is wait for dem policies to unveil themselves as the inevitable failures they have shown themselves to be in the past. Round and round we go.
When you consider something like the relative decline of the working man's prospects over the decades, there are two main approaches currently in play. On one side you have the explanation, "there are quite a few factors, domestic and global, affecting that decline, and they interact with each other in various and sometimes rather complex ways." On the other side you have the explanation, "it's gubbermint." The former explanation attracts one type, the latter attracts another, and the battle lines are drawn.
One sides say we can fix "factors, domestic and global, affecting that decline" by spending the next generations money now in order to keep getting elected... and one side says... lets have heart, lets have character and step up to the fact the way to deal with the decline is to act mature... tighten our belts and concentrate on unleashing the private sector to increase our standard of living.