No surprise, this week’s Sift focuses on the election aftermath, and in particular where the Republicans go now.
They’ve lost the popular vote in five out of six presidential election now, and seem to have alienated Hispanics as a voting bloc. (Asians too — which gets much less attention and points to a larger problem than just immigration policy.) White identity politics motivates the base, but the price may be too high. Evangelicals demand purity on gay rights and abortion, but those positions push away young voters.
So this week’s main article “W(h)ither the Republicans?” examines their reactions to a sweeping loss and gives my own suggestion: Keep a small-government, private-sector approach to problems, but come back to reality. Start proposing solutions to real problems like climate change, rather than imaginary ones like voter fraud or Sharia law. And recognize that conservatives are only 1/3 of the electorate, so you need to compromise.
The second article “Why Didn’t Money Talk?” discusses why the doomsday predictions many of us made after Citizens United didn’t pan out. The money showed up, but the results didn’t. Why not?
I’m trying to get both out before noon.
The Weekly Sift 
Comments
Hi, the fact that Romney spent too much money in the primary and Obama’s ads depicting Romney as a ruthless job-slasher ran unopposed in swing states in the summer. So in one way millions of dollars failed to unseat Obama, but the advantage may matter at certain times. Romney’s campaign was short enough on cash that they were considering taking federal matching funds.