DEAR EDITOR:
Romney's hopes for victory Tuesday hinged on almost all of the polls being wrong.
The gender gap has been with us since at least 1980. With the rise of minorities as a larger share of the voting population, the GOP has begun to rely increasingly on the strategy of maximizing the white male vote.
While every campaign seeks to energize its core support, this presented long-term problems not just for Romney in this election, but for the GOP in the future. By explicitly appealing to certain issues, they were in effect writing off many groups entirely.
The economy had, rightly so, given Obama's re-election a run for its money, but it masked somewhat the changes that are underfoot in the U.S. Now that Romney has lost, the GOP will have some soul-searching to do before they plan for the 2016 election. Then the economy should be less of a divisive issue and they will have to face the reality that they will have to appeal to voters outside of their historic groups.
Hopefully, one day, both parties will appeal to all voting groups instead of playing off each other so that we may all feel included and connected in the process.
(Author's note: This was not meant to be an overt racial piece nor is this author a member of a minority group.)
Craig Seman
Warren