Unemployment is still above 8 percent, job gains aren't even keeping up with population growth, the economy is barely moving forward. And yet, according to most polls, the Romney-Ryan ticket is falling further and further behind. How can this be?
Because Republicans are failing the central test of electability. Instead of putting together the largest possible coalition of voters, they're relying largely on one slice of America -- middle-aged white men -- and alienating just about everyone else.
Start with Hispanics, whose electoral heft keeps growing as they become an ever-larger portion of the electorate. Hispanics now favor President Obama over Romney-Ryan by a larger margin than they did six months ago.
Why? In last February's Republican primary debate Romney dubbed Arizona's controversial immigration policy -- that authorized police to demand proof of citizenship from anyone looking Hispanic -- a "model law" for the rest of the nation.
Romney then attacked GOP rival Texas Governor Rick Perry for supporting in-state tuition at the University of Texas for children of undocumented immigrants. And Romney advocates what he calls "self-deportation" -- making life so difficult for undocumented immigrants and their families that they choose to leave.
As if all this weren't enough, the GOP has been pushing voter ID laws all over America, whose obvious aim is to intimidate Hispanic voters so they won't come to the polls. But they may be having the opposite effect -- emboldening the vast majority of ethnic Hispanics, who are American citizens, to vote in even greater numbers and lend even more support to Obama and other Democrats.
Or consider women -- whose political and economic impact in America continues to grow (women are fast becoming better educated than men and the major breadwinners in American homes). According to polls, the political gender gap is widening.
Why? It's not just GOP senatorial candidate Todd Akin's call to ban all abortions even in the case of "legitimate rape" (because he believes women's bodies somehow reject violent sperm). The GOP platform itself seeks to bar all abortions, with no exception for rape or incest. And on several occasions Paul Ryan has voted in favor of exactly such legislation.
Meanwhile, Republican legislators in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Idaho, and Alabama have pushed bills requiring women seeking abortions to undergo invasive vaginal ultrasound tests. All told, over 400 Republican bills are pending in state legislatures, attacking women's reproductive rights.
Republicans have repeatedly voted against legislation giving women equal pay for the same work as men. Republicans in Wisconsin have even repealed a law designed to prevent employers from discriminating against women.
Or consider students -- a significant and growing electoral force, who voted overwhelmingly for Obama in 2008. What are Republicans doing to woo them back?
Paul Ryan's budget plan -- approved by almost every House Republican and enthusiastically endorsed by Mitt Romney -- would have allowed rates on student loans to double, adding an average of $1,000 a year to student debt loads. (Under mounting political pressure, House Republicans came up with just enough money to keep the loan program going safely past Election Day by raiding a fund established for preventive care in the new health care act.)
Now Romney wants to hand the federal student loan program over to the banks, which will charge even more. Earlier this year he argued subsidized student loans were bad because they encouraged colleges to raise their tuition, and suggested students ask their families for money.
Republicans have even managed to antagonize seniors by seeking to turn Medicare into vouchers whose value won't keep up with rising health care costs, and cutting $800 billion out of Medicaid (which many seniors rely on for nursing home care).
And, of course, they've come out against equal marriage rights for gay couples.
Romney, Ryan, and the GOP don't seem to know how to satisfy their middle-aged white male base without at the same time turning off everyone who's not white, male, straight, or middle-aged. Unfortunately for Romney and Ryan, the people they're turning off are the majority.
ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The Work of Nations." His latest is an e-book, "Beyond Outrage," now available in paperback. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.
Follow Robert Reich on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RBReich
Bernard Whitman: 52 Reasons to Vote For Obama: #19, Responsible Immigration Reform
 |
 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
I will vote for OBAMA / BIDEN IN 2012.
And thanks to billiej for his/her excellent comments.
This election IS about a vision of the future. Is it to be one with an aristocracy and peasants or is it to be one where everyone has an equal shot and everyone was endowed by the Creator with inalienable rights?
Mittens complains in the released video that people think they are entitled to health care and food and a place to live. Christianity teaches us to care for and lift up those who are weak. It's good theology and it's good economics. We will thrive as a country if we reject the Right's vision of two separate Americas - rich (them) and poor meant to serve the rich.
Dems always seem to throw a weak punch when under cannon fire. Let's not relax. You, know the fat lady has not sung yet & they've still got a lot of money, power and motivation.
Let's take the realities of why Romney/Ryan are turning so many people off and keep driving those nails into their coffins.....and not let up until election day.
Good thing there are no Democrats like that.
The Fortune 500 probably laid off their PR depts. now anyway, the arrogance of the crass hereditary aristocracy 1% as we've seen this wk. from the corporate raider billionaire Mittster clearly indicates.
We need a new party, and not just a narrow minded one like the Green Party or the Libertarian Party.
In 1988 as a very young translator and classical musican, I earned lots more than I do today, my rent then being only $250 a month for a lovely two bedrm NY apt. Once the repubs got going, the salaries stopped rising while food, rents, carfare, etc.soared every year. I´ve learned that lovely apt I once had now costs more than $4,000 a month. Those life-destroying changes came about during the Reagan and Bush régimes. I agree people should pay their fair share of taxes according to their income, but as the repubs shipped Americans´ jobs to Asia, where do you suggest the once decently remunerated, now hourly paid ($6-10)...if they have jobs at all... get the money to pay anything? DO you realize how many millions Americans are on the street? No records honestly show the number, because afer 6 months unemployment, the person goes into the twilight zone and the number is grossly undercounted. Unmeployment is probably around 30 million and rising. How many years have many been jobless? More than 12, Wake up to what´s really happening..The poor, once middle-class Americans are now a majority, and the execs or rich in the corporations you speak of, are paying few, if any, taxes, hiding their assets and true wealth in offshore banks, while the few slave employees left in the US, slog and lose everything. Wake up, sir! You, too, are one of the victims.
How can anybody object to that definition?
But like Bain taking over a company, they don't care if the company lives or dies nor if the workers stay or go (preferably they should go). Point is, take over, take profit and take cover. Are we ever again going to see real patriotism and integrity from the GOP? That's the scary part.
Fair and balanced: You give us a fact and I'll make something up. That's balanced news. Truth too must be balanced with a sufficient number of lies. Otherwise it just wouldn't be fair.