How far will the GOP go to broaden the tent?

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, left, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, right. / AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

The post-game analysis over November's election continues, but as Republicans reflect on their electoral losses, a common consensus has emerged on the right: the GOP, if it is to stay relevant and competitive in the coming years, has to broaden its demographic appeal.

In the the days following the election, as strategists unpacked the cause of Mitt Romney's presidential demise, exit poll data offered some early insight into what went wrong: Romney, despite winning among white voters in all age groups, had dismal showings in almost every minority group. He lost the Latino vote to Obama 71 percent to 27 percent. His numbers were worse among Asian-Americans, who voted for the president 73 percent to 26 percent. And, as the GOP had anticipated, it was no contest among African-Americans, 93 percent of whom voted to re-elect Mr. Obama.

On the morning of November 7, Republicans were already calling for change: Al Cardenas, the head of the American Conservative Union, told Politico that the GOP "needs to realize that it's too old and too white and too male and it needs to figure out how to catch up with the demographics of the country before it's too late."

More recently, Republican pollster Whit Ayres released a memo warning the GOP that it had "run out of persuadable white voters," and that "To be competitive nationally in the future, Republicans must do better among non-white Americans."

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"There are a whole lot of smart Republicans who realize we've got to go in a new direction," Ayres told CBSNews.com.

Even as they tout newfound resolve to overhaul their outreach methodology and appeal to new voters, however, some question whether the party is willing to embrace the substantive change necessary to bring their goals to fruition.

A new direction?

In light of the party's recent losses -- Republicans lost seats in the House and Senate as well as in the presidency -- the GOP says it's committed to learning from the mistakes of the last cycle. The RNC recently launched a five-person committee aimed at evaluating the committee's work leading up to the 2012 election, and RNC spokesperson Sean Spicer insisted the committee is committed to taking actionable steps that will help reverse some of the recent demographic trends.

"We're looking at everything," Spicer told CBSNews.com. He says each member of the five-person team - which comprises RNC committee member Henry Barbour, Jeb Bush adviser Sally Bradshaw, former George W. Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer, Puerto Rico RNC committee member Zori Fonalledas, and South Carolina RNC member Glenn McCall - will take the lead on a certain issue and do extensive outreach to discern how to be more effective in the future. They'll look primarily at how to attract new voters going forward, and related questions of messaging, mechanics, get out the vote efforts, via conference calls, one-on-one discussion, and formal meetings.

"The goal obviously is to grow the party and win elections," Spicer said.

A big part of that equation has to do with increasing support among Latino voters. Not only did the overwhelming support of Hispanic voters help deliver Mr. Obama his re-election this year, but as the fastest-growing population in the U.S., Latinos will be an increasingly crucial voting bloc going forward. Romney is believed to have been badly damaged among Latinos by his harsh rhetoric on immigration reform during the primaries - one of his suggestions included "self-deportation" - as well as the party's generally unsympathetic tone on the subject.

In recent years, according to Ayres, Republicans "persuaded themselves that they could use very harsh language about undocumented Hispanics without offending those who are here legally, but that was very misguided." In his report, "The Hispanic Challenge and Opportunity for Republicans," he argues that fixing the nation's immigration system is just one of the many measures the party will have to adopt in order to make serious inroads into the community.

It's clear that lawmakers are getting the message: Many congressional Republicans have already softened their tone with regard to immigration, and Republican members of both the House and the Senate put forth immigration-related bills within just weeks of the election.

"A great many Republicans already have the right tone: People like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio promote conservative policies of limited government in a way that is very welcoming to new people who might not have been Republicans in the past," Ayres said. "So it's not like we don't have examples out there."

Talk vs. action

Despite the recent display of inclusiveness, it's unclear how far the GOP is willing to go on a policy level to make way for new members, and some wonder how fast change can feasibly come to a party that's dominated by elderly white men.

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[AttyFAM]

About the only way that the Republican Party can convince women, Blacks, Hispanics, gays and lesbians, teachers and others to vote for them is the following:

At the state level, repeal all the anti-women laws, all the anti-union laws, all the anti-immigrant (really anti-Black/Hispanic) laws, all the anti-voter laws and the anti-science laws.

At the federal level, repeal DOMA and support equal treatment for gays and lesbians, eliminate restrictions on abortion, strengthen the NLRB, strengthen the 1965 Voter Registration Law, move Obamacare forward.

If you do all this, you will gain credibility with the voters you despise.

[Brian_Joness]

An interesting thought is that there are more gay-Americans than Asian-Americans. There are even more voters that aren't gay but support gay rights. That vote pretty much automatically goes to the Democrats because the GOP is so anti-gay because of their fringe religious right faction. If they were to drop the anti-gay stuff, then they would have a lot more luck than going after Asians.

All in all, the GOP just has to become less mean and the younger voters (which is the real problem) will start to consider them.

[HemiHead66]

The only thing the GOP will do is get better at lying. And as soon as they're in office they'll do just like those 2010 cost-cutting tea-politicians who were going to cut spending & change Washington, pork-barrel it up right under Conservatives noses. Just do a Google search for (cost-cutters, except when the spending is back home.) Read the first NYT article, that the full version. All the others seen to be cut short.

[kevinkelly26]

The Republicans have never been anything resembling a 'big tent' party. I don't think that's inherently bad, but it's true. Historically the country WAS much more white, and much more Christian, so the GOP had no need to be a big tent party. Within the dominant white christian voting block there were plenty of conservatives and traditionalists, so the GOP could be a fully viable party appealing solely to those voters.

The Democrats, on the other hand, have long been a 'big tent' party, a grab-bag coalition of working-class white union voters, blacks, latinos, single women, feminists, environmentalists, gays and lesbians, academics and intellectuals, and yes, Hollywood-types (artists and creatives). If you were on the margins of American society in some way, if you were part of the huddled masses or the wretched refuse, you had a home with the Democrats.

The Democratic Party has spent decades bringing together a very diverse group of voters, with a very diverse group of interests, and working in that milieu to build a party. Tolerance for diversity is in the DNC's DNA. They're comfortable with diversity of opinion, different policy goals, etc, and have been for decades. Part of that is altruistic, and part of that grew from historic necessity, but the fact remains.

The Republican's do not have diversity in their DNA. Quite the opposite. As self-described 'conservatives' they work to keep things 'like they were', by definition. They miss the 'good old days' of the 1950's, when the US really was a white, Christian nation. In many ways the 1950's were good -- teen pregnancy was lower, divorce was much lower, people could leave their doors unlocked, gas stations didn't have bullet-proof glass windows, television and movies were much less coarse and vulgar, children and teenagers were more respectful of adults, etc.

But this isn't the 1950's. This is 2012. We can't go back to an idealized Ozzie & Harriet 1950's version of America. We can't mass-deport all non-whites. We can't make gays and lesbians go back in the closet. We can't pull the FCC license on all spanish-language tv channels. We can't make agnostics, atheists, Hindis, Muslims, and Sikhs accept Jesus Christ as their personal lord and savior.

A substantial percentage of the GOP voting block really believes this is 'supposed' to be a white, Christian country. "I want my country back!" I just don't see those voters giving up on that. I don't see them truly embracing diversity. That group is like the nucleus of the GOP, repelling any electrons (minorities, gays, etc) that come close to the party.

America in 2012 is a diverse, big-tent country. The Democrats are completely comfortable with 2012 America. They ok with America the way it is. It's in their DNA.

The Republican party isn't comfortable with 2012 America. They're constantly longing for 1950 America. They're trying in vain to push America back to the way it was. "Big Tent" is not in the Republican's DNA.

As long as a majority of GOP voters are actively trying to push America back to the 1950's, they simply won't be able to co-exist within the same party with large swaths of Americans who don't want to push America back to the 1950's.

Putting up fig-leaf candidates isn't going to overcome the repulsion that many voters in 2012 America feel from the GOP.

[mississippigirl2012]

Well Said!!!

[MTATL670]

It is not that they are 'old and white' it is their unwillingness to change. They have not figured out to embraces diversity while holding on to their own traditions and believes whether they be political or personal. If they don't figure it out like most of us have. The highest seat a Republican will hold will be at the state level.

[HemiHead66]

Sorry, the "FUBAR" party are finished. These are the clowns that were just bashing Obama for robbing Medicare (which he didn't) and now they're trying to force Obama to rob Soc. Sec. & Medicare. And we're talking about seniors who are currently receiving benefits. The GOP lied again. When election time comes around you're going to see 2010 in reverse. Nobody is buying the GOP's BS anymore. The tea-baggers don't even got their backs when it comes to hi-jacking SS & Medicare. We pay double the world for health care and the GOP wanna stick-it to us some more. They wouldn't even let Obama / the Govt. negotiate drug prices to contain Medicare's rising costs. So much for the free-market.

[dman6015]

Well, let's see. The current tent size is about 8' x 10', so I would say they have a little bit of room for expansion.

[FormerUSMCSergeant]

Republicans lost seats in the House and Senate as well as in the presidency
----
repubs may well be a permanent minority from here on. dubya was the last repub president and may go down in history as such.

[northwoods2]

It's going to be a long time to forget the Republican Party of hate. They care only about the wealthy and their lobbyists. I see a very long drought before we see another Republican president. The old, angry, white men that control the party are not going to change their biggoted, racist,stripes over night nor are their supporters. They sure are desperate when their hopes are Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio who have a lot of baggage here in Florida.

[Type_Z]

All four comments are bogus and misguided.

There are problems but you might want to try facts, instead of hyped propaganda.