Republicans ask 'where do we go from here?'

Having lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections, Republicans plunged on Wednesday into an intense period of self-examination, blame-setting and testy debate over whether their party needs serious change or just some minor tweaks.

The fallout will help determine whether the Republican party might return to heights approximating the Ronald Reagan years or, as some fear, suffer even deeper losses as the nation's Democratic-leaning Hispanics increase in number.

"The party is clearly in some sort of identity crisis,'' said Rick Tyler, a past aide to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Hard-core conservatives, furious at President Barack Obama's re-election in the face of a weak economy, called for a wholesale shift to resolutely right positions on social and fiscal matters. Some demanded that party leaders resign.

Establishment Republicans largely shrugged off the tirades. But they split into two main camps themselves, portending potentially lengthy soul-searching, especially in Congress.

One group calls for calm and a steady course. It emphasizes that the party still controls the House, and notes that Obama's popular-vote margin was smaller than in 2008.

"The Republican Party is exactly right on the issues,'' said Terry Holt, a veteran Republican strategist with close ties to House Speaker John Boehner. The party mainly needs to nominate candidates who can relate to average Americans better than multimillionaire Mitt Romney did, Holt said.

Some other Republicans, however, see bigger problems. The party must shed its "absolutism on issues like tax increases,'' which congressional lawmakers oppose at virtually every level, said John Ullyot, a former Republican Senate aide.

"The only way the party is going to move more to the middle is when we get sick of losing,'' he said.

That's essentially what Democrats did in the 1990s. Demoralized after big losses by presidential nominees Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis – and still mindful of George McGovern's 1972 disaster – Democrats turned to a centrist Arkansas governor, Bill Clinton. He won two elections, repositioned the party and served as Obama's top surrogate this fall.

... contd.

ALSO READ

Agent in America raises funds for Imran's party, sends over $7 lakh

Texting while driving?

Violence grips Bangladesh as Islamists demand stricter blasphemy law

David Cameron warned: 'Shed elitist image'