Whatever will the Republican Party do now...

that they've resoundingly lost the Presidency for the fourth time in the last six elections?

First off it's important to remember that the pundits who call this a resounding loss are way off base.  While the electoral college vote was not close, the popular vote was.  With over 118 million ballots cast, Obama got 50% and Romney got 48%.  Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate got 1%.

50% is not a huge mandate as people are trying to imply.  We've already discussed why Romney was going to lose.  He had no clear, coherent message.  In spite of this fact he came awfully close to winning.  And the Republican party maintained control in the House of Representatives, while losing a little ground in the Senate.  So let's not call this a repudiation of Republican values or a resounding mandate for President Obama and the Democratic Party.

That being said, the Republican Party needs to make major changes if it is to have any hope of gaining serious ground in the off-year elections in 2014 and winning the White House back in 2016.  What is clear from the votes of the people is that they aren't interested in a party agenda that focuses on the issues of banning abortion, not allowing same-sex couples to be treated equally in the area of marriage and the rights/responsibilities/privileges that marriage confers, and attempting to legislate morality.

If the Republicans want to have any hope of regaining control of the Senate and winning the White House, they need to do several things differently going forward.  First and foremost they need a clear and coherent message.  Fiscal responsibility.  Not tax cuts for millionaires.  Cutting taxes is not the way to close a trillion dollar deficit.  Tax cuts can produce improved revenues when there is a strong, growing economy.  The U.S. doesn't have one right now.  Worse yet, with the continued flight of manufacturing from the U.S. to countries where it is cheaper to produce the same level of quality products, that equation isn't going to change.

The next issue where the Republican party needs to undergo a 'sea-change' in philosophy is the area of foreign policy.  JFK, in the speech he never got to deliver, wrote:  "We, in this country, in this generation, are -- by destiny rather than by choice -- the watchmen on the walls of world freedom."  This is a task that the U.S. can no longer carry out on our own.  While we must fund defense spending to the level to protect ourselves, we can no longer afford to be the world's "watchman" of freedom.  While not fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in and of themselves would not have brought balance to the budget, their cost will haunt us for decades to come.  Tens of billions will be spent caring for the veterans who fought in those conflicts.  A standing military force of nearly 1.5 million people isn't necessary to provide for the "national defense" if we start to make other nations with strong economies responsible for their own safety.

I think the main difference between the Republicans and the Democrats, assuming the Democrats maintain the same course and the Republicans make the moves they need to make, will be in the size of government desired, and the level to which we provide a social safety net.  The issues of national healthcare and the survival of Social Security must be addressed and neither party has a real, workable solution to either.  The handwriting of Obamacare is already on the wall.  Employers are going to do everything possible to avoid providing the mandated coverage, including making full-time employees work part-time and simply having more part-time workers.  Individuals who feel they are healthy enough to go without coverage will do so because the mandate doesn't penalize them for choosing to opt-out and then opting back in only after they have an illness, because of the mania for providing coverage for pre-existing conditions.

That should be changed.  My philosophical conflict with pre-existing conditions being covered without the insured having to bear any of the costs involved aside, if we're going to force insurers to do this, we need to do it once.  Let those who choose to opt-out of the mandate now know that they cannot opt-in later in the future when they NEED coverage, without paying a steep penalty for doing so.

The other negative about the Republican party is that people perceive it as elitist and racist.  It may well be elitist, particularly since so many of the elected representatives who are members of the party continue to argue for tax cuts for the wealthy.  I'll address the issue of top marginal tax rates in another blog post.  But this gives people the impression that this is the party of millionaires.  The reason the party is perceived as racist is because some Republicans are engaged in doing what they think will win victories by pressing agendas that have been twisted into appearing to be things like voter suppression and the like.  Politics is perception.

So what will the Republian party do?  There's no knowing for certain.  I know what they should do if they want to have any chance of increasing their representation in the Congress in 2014 and having any prayer of winning the White House back in 2016.