TexasCHLforum.com

Charles L. Cotton wrote:I'm a life-long conservative, death penalty-supporting, white Republican and every day that passes I become more of a minority.

Here are the hard cold facts. Obama won, the Democrats pickup seats in the Senate and in the House, and Romney got about all of the white vote possible. If the Republicans couldn't unseat an absolute failure like Obama, and couldn't gain seats in the Senate, then we had better take a hard, cold look at what we are doing wrong.

The Republican Party better start appealing to Hispanics with whom we have a lot in common, or we will not see a Republican in the White House again. We will also see the Democrats take the House and increase their margin in the Senate. Bush won by the slimmest of margins (lost one popular vote) and he was more popular with Hispanics than any Republican candidate in years. If Republicans concede the rapidly growing Hispanic population to the Democrats, then all of us conservatives will simply have to sit back, complain, and reminisce about the "good old days."

If the Republicans had come up with some form of immigration reform, then we would have taken a much larger percentage of the Hispanic vote. White Republicans and Hispanics share a strong family values ethic and we are natural allies. Letting the immigration issue drive them to the Democratic Party is political suicide.

I know some will argue that conservatives didn't go to the polls for Romney, but that's not the case and that's not why we lost. The sad truth is this: conservatives are in the minority and this is happening at an accelerating rate. The only way to revive conservationism is to attract Hispanics and appeal to all educated young people with a message that resonates with them and doesn't simply sound like bitter old white guys.

I know many of our Members aren't going to like this post. Heck, I don't like it myself, but these are the facts and the ostrich approach never works.

Chas.