This was one that the Republicans really should have won.

Given the weak economy, American voters were open to firing President Barack Obama. In Europe, in similar circumstances, one government after another lost re-election. And, at the beginning of this year, it looked as if the Republicans might win control of the U.S. Senate as well.

Yet it wasn't the Democrats who won so much as the Republicans who lost -- at a most basic level, because of demography. A coalition of aging white men is a recipe for failure in a nation that increasingly looks like a rainbow.

Schadenfreude may excuse Democrats' smiles for a few days, but these trends portend a potential disaster not just for the Republican Party but for the health of our political system. America needs a plausible center-right opposition party to hold Obama's feet to the fire, not just a collection of tea party cranks.






Part of the problem, I think, is the profusion of right-wing radio and television programs. Democrats complain furiously that Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity smear the left, but I wonder if the bigger loser isn't the Republican Party itself. Those shows whip up a frenzy in their audience, torpedoing Republican moderates and instilling paranoia on issues like immigration.


In 2002, a book was published called "The Emerging Democratic Majority." It argued that Democrats would gain because of their strength in expanding demographics such as Latinos, Asian-Americans and working women. It seemed persuasive until Republicans clobbered Democrats in the next couple of elections.

But perhaps that book was ahead of its time. This was the first election in which Latino voters made up a double-digit share of the electorate, according to CNN exit polls -- 10 percent, doubled from 1996 -- and more than 7 out of 10 Latino voters supported Obama.

That wasn't inevitable. In 2004, exit polls suggested that President George W. Bush received 44 percent of the Latino vote. But Republicans became obstructionist on immigration and then veered into offensive demagogy in opposing the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. The Latino vote tumbled by increasing numbers into the Democrats' laps.

Then there are women. The paternalistic comments about rape by a few male Republican candidates resonated so broadly because they reflected the perception of the GOP as a conclave of out-of-touch men.

As Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri might put it, when a candidate emerges with offensive views about rape, "the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." Namely, they vote Democratic.


An astonishing 45 percent of Obama voters were members of minority groups, according to The New York Times' Nate Silver. Many others were women or young people. That's the future of America, and if the Republican Party remains a purist cohort built around grumpy old white men, it is committing suicide. That's bad not just for conservatives but for our entire country.

Nicholas D. Kristof is a New York Times columnist. Contact him at or