Because their ideas don’t work. Paul Krugman spells it out:
Four years ago, right-wing economic analysts insisted that deficit spending would destroy jobs, because government borrowing would divert funds that would otherwise have gone into business investment, and also insisted that this borrowing would send interest rates soaring. The right thing, they claimed, was to balance the budget, even in a depressed economy.
Now, this argument was obviously fallacious from the beginning. As people like me tried to point out, the whole reason our economy was depressed was that businesses weren’t willing to invest as much as consumers were trying to save. So government borrowing would not, in fact, drive up interest rates — and trying to balance the budget would simply deepen the depression.
Sure enough, interest rates, far from soaring, are at historic lows — and countries that slashed spending have also seen sharp job losses. You rarely get this clear a test of competing economic ideas, and the right’s ideas failed.
Mark L. Bail says
The GOP can’t be wrong, people just don’t hear them right. Now that they have Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz who can say it in Spanish, everything will return to normal.
Al says
their very nature, all the “better messaging”, and token Spanish speakers, won’t change a thing.
Christopher says
…that Mark Bail’s comment was intended as snark.
Mark L. Bail says
Their ideas now lack persuasiveness. They’ll have a money advantage in a lot of places for a long while, but we’re coming on. Put a lump of coal in a nice Christmas stocking and it’s still a lump of coal.
SomervilleTom says
n/m
tim-little says
I like Lakoff’s take, too:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2012/why-even-republicans-loved-obamas-state-union
David says
it bills itself as a piece about the technological superiority of Democrats, which is a real thing. But it’s really a mashup of what should have been two articles: the technological aspect, and the fact that the mainstream GOP message is repellent to many young voters (among other important groups). Worth a read, though it’s too bad it doesn’t do a better job of separating the tech story from the message story.
bluewatch says
I am old enough to remember Richard Nixon’s loss to Pat Brown in 1962. At that time, there was a program called the “political obituary of Richard Nixon”. Of course, Tricky Dick later became President.
And, I remember what everybody was saying about the GOP in 2008, after Obama’s significant victory. People said that the GOP had become irrelevant. Then, in 2009, Scott Brown won. And, the republicans came back in 2010 and took control of Congress (the House).
If we keep talking about why the GOP is losing, we will find ourselves surprised to see that John Kerry’s seat is held by a republican. Do not underestimate Massachusetts Republicans.