Is it time for the GOP to start over?

Is it time for the Republican Party, the GOP, to clean house and start over?

If there is anything that the election of 2012 has taught us, it's that certain core Republican policies hold a great deal of bipartisan popular appeal. Low taxes, balanced budgets, limited government - all things that some Republicans have tried to argue need more attention (Frum, 2011). But these Republican values have found themselves buried by rising conservative extremism (Daily Kos, 2012).

This election could very easily have resulted in a Republican White House (Scheiber, 2012). However, policies and views pushed to pander to extreme parts of the party coincided with sudden drops in polling support for the Republican candidate - creating the unflattering perception of wealth favouritism and aggressive conservatism against women's rights.

First, Governor Romney's dismissal of a large portion of Americans as 47% that don't contribute (Gross, 2012) coincided with a poll slump that gave him an uphill battle right up until the election.

And, second, the GOP candidate faced a massive turnout of women who were galvanised to vote for President Obama (Telegraph, 2012) - as a result of derogatory, dangerous and conservative comments and attitudes towards the rights of women expressed by Republican congressmen (see below, Republican Party Attacks on Women).

That slump in support and that rallying of the opposition crippled a campaign that could have been otherwise successful. Not only was religion-based social conservatism rejected in the Presidential election, along with wealth-friendly conservative economics, but the Republican Presidential Primaries also rejected the far-right Tea Party position. The only salve for the Republicans has been the retention (with a slightly reduced grip) of the House of Representatives.

There is a lot of room in American politics for a moderate party of limited government. But it cannot ignore minorities and the poor, and it must recognise as in demand both cost-effective accessible healthcare and steadfast support from government in hard times. The argument cannot be for the ditching of welfare in favour of limited government, but rather for how to offer welfare with limited government.

The path to a modernised moderate Republican Party begins with the GOP moving to open up the America's two party system. Acting to remove the restrictions that prevent the Libertarian Party from involvement in the national presidential debates, and stop them getting onto presidential ballots, offers a route to a more moderate party at the same time as enhancing the democratic process for voters.

That enhanced democratic competition decreases the value of extremism, helping to counter the extremist elements within the GOP. Those elements - with deeply aggressive conservative stances on social issues - cost the Republicans the White House, where a moderate party of limited government would have enjoyed wide popular support. The failure to modernise and cast off the narrow hostile conservative extremism of this campaign (Boyarksky, 2012) will likely mean the GOP is dead in the water as a national party.

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References:
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+ David Frum's 'When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality?'; in New York Magazine; 20 November 2011.

+ Daily Kos' 'Charlotte Observer: Extremism will be what costs Romney this election'; 4 November 2012.

+ Noam Scheiber's 'Romney Had a Chance to Beat Obama, and He Blew It'; in The New Republic; 7 November 2012.

+ Daniel Gross' 'Romney's "47 Percent" Comments Were  Bad Economic and Bad Politics'; on thedailybeast.com; 18 September 2012.

+ The Telegraph's 'US election: Here come the girls as women make historic gains'; 7 November 2012.

Republican Party Attacks on Women, a selection:
+ NY Times' 'The Campaign Against Women'; 19 May 2012.
+ NY Times' 'Republicans vs Women'; 29 July 2012.
+ Kia Makareshi's 'Mila Kunis Blasts Republicans' "Attack on Women" and "Offensive" Stance on Religion'; on the Huffington Post; 9 October 2012.

+ Bill Boyakrsky's 'How Could the Republicans Have Been So Stupid?'; on truthdig.com; 7 November 2012.