Turnout hurt the GOP bad this time, and don't I know it, I had multiple downticket candidates lost by a slim margin while Obama swept my county at +10, that hurts like hell because you know they were the better candidate in their own race but got swept by straight-ticket presidential-year-only voters. We won a big share of the regular Dems but lost anyway because the 'elections are only every 4 years right?' crowd can't be bothered to find out that one of the guys with a D next to his name is under investigation by the FBI. They just see a D, and I'm not sure re-branding our pushing our message harder would help.

Because in a lot of these cases the 'mistake' is having certian values or principals 49% support and 51% don't, and you're one of those 49%, I'm not willing to change my stance on abortion to gain votes, or guns or school vouchers. Things like that aren't on the table anymore then changing my religion would be if I moved somewhere where Buddhists or Muslims were the majority. Being against amnesty for illegals might not be a tactically good position but I'm not wiling to trade it off for votes.