The GOP can recover from the setbacks of 2012.
The Republican Party cannot assume that the United States is a "center-right" party. Townhall.com has documented that 40% of Americans consider them "conservative". That does not mean that they are registered Republicans. That does not mean that they will vote for the "more conservative" candidate if they believe that the two major candidates want to advance the power of the welfare state with minimal, non-committal guarantees of less spending and budget cuts.
Voters may be confused, liberalism is seductive, promising much, just like Obama 2008, but delivering very little, like the President during his first administration.
Republicans do not need to abandon their convictions. They should not relinquishing their stance on social issues just to win more votes from moderate-leaning constituencies. 59% of Americans are pro-life. A recent statistic also reports that abortions have declined by 5%. This trend is welcome needs, even though a dependency culture seems to be on the rise in the United States.
Because of the two crises of liberalism, Obama's political philosophy may collapse under the weight of its own successes. The incumbent has inherited his own problems: Afghanistan, budget deficits, rising national debt, domestic entitlement problems.
Conservatives do not have to change their views; they need to expand their outreach to Hispanics and blacks. Romney did better than expected with the youth vote in this country. There is room for improvement, not despair.
Minority issues are about class, not race. James Preston Allen, the alternative progressive editor of Random Lengths News, made the same argument in his latest editorial. Previous immigrant populations, like Italians, voted Democratic in previous generations. Now they are a reliably Republican constituency.
As mentioned in a previous post, the Republicans have taken the reins of power in thirty states. The free-market reforms in these arenas will project the successes of limited government conservatism as a successful alternative to the federalized liberalism of Barack Obama. A rising crowd of GOP stars will run for President in 2012, with another open field among Democrats and Republicans for the White House. Republicans will have a string of prosperous outcomes compared to the sluggish economy and retarded recovery in the blue states. Wisconsin, North Carolina, Indiana, and even states with mixed leadership, like New Mexico, will promote Republicans of all colors and backgrounds.