Republicans to change delivery, not message of platform

By Ryan Buffa| gargoyle@flagler.edu
Photo courtesy of http://usconservatives.about.com/
>In the aftermath of the 2012 presidential election, many Republicans are looking back to November as a lesson in how to appeal to voters.

Ethnic minorities, young adults and women overwhelmingly voted to re-elected President Barack Obama over Gov. Mitt Romney.

According to USA Today, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana said at the Republican National Committee winter meeting two weeks ago, that rather than appealing to minority voters, Republicans have to communicate their platform without liberal media bias.

Jindal, who many consider a potential presidential candidate in 2016, said that “We must reject the notion that demography is destiny, the pathetic and simplistic notion that skin pigmentation dictates voter behavior.”

Local Republican leaders agree that it is not a matter of changing the message of the Grand Old Party, but the way in which it is delivered.

“The Republican Party must do a better job of articulating its core beliefs – that it is the party of opportunity and prosperity for all Americans,” St. Johns County Republican Party Chairman Sean Mulhall said. “The party must make a concerted effort to ensure that it is speaking to every demographic so that people who felt like the party did not speak to them in 2012, won’t feel that way in 2016.”

St. Johns County Republican State Committeewoman Becky Reichenberg also believes that the GOP would have appealed to minority voters with better messaging.

“We allowed the media to define us and put us into an economic box so much so that Republicans appeared to only be concerned about jobs and the economy,” Reichenberg said. “We were not diligent in expressing our entire platform and thus we failed to reach so many.”

Flagler College student and former Army infantryman, Steven Buckingham, believes that despite Romney’s defeat in the presidential race, the GOP was not rejected by all minority, young and female voters.

“I do feel we need to find a way to reach out to more independents and Latinos if we are going to continue to maintain control of the House and indeed the Oval Office come 2016,” Buckingham said.

Like many concerned Republicans, Buckingham believes that the true ideals of the party were blurred. “At times we as a party have had our message hijacked by those on the extreme right. This is not representative of the party as a whole, but it makes for a better news cycle so it will get the media’s attention.”