Shaping a Grand New Party

Since the last time the Republicans won the youth vote in 1984 and 1988, the GOP has barely put up a fight.

In order to reassert itself in this key constituency, Republicans must start in such hostile territory as Chapel Hill by bringing tidings of entrepreneurship and tolerance.

This is perhaps a tall order for a party currently famous in this state for helping amend the Constitution to effectively ban same-sex marriage and attempting to legislate away Sharia law and voting college students.

However, concerned party leaders have used the 2012 presidential defeat to locate the path forward. It led to much Wednesday-morning campaign management. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus released a report saying, “Young voters are increasingly rolling their eyes at what the party represents.”

This was followed by the College Republican National Committee’s report, “Grand Old Party for A Brand New Generation.” It cited a focus group of young, “winnable” Obama voters describing the GOP as “closed-minded, racist, rigid, old-fashioned.”

Surprisingly, neither “introspective” nor “self-loathing” made the list.

The reports showed key similarities: The need to demonstrate how the GOP’s economic platform will help small businesses, tolerate ideological diversity within the party, especially in terms of same-sex marriage and improve outreach to youth and minority groups.

UNC is the perfect proving ground for this new strategy. With former Chancellor Holden Thorp’s legacy of innovation, Chapel Hill has grown into an entrepreneurial hub. An August 2012 study cited in the CRNC report found that 45 percent of young voters wanted to start their own businesses.

The GOP must channel this entrepreneurial spirit by highlighting the benefits of tax and regulatory reform for small businesses, one of the key planks of the Romney-Ryan platform.

The issue of same-sex marriage will also be crucial to the GOP’s future, especially in places like Chapel Hill.

In a March CRNC survey, 26 percent of respondents said that they would not, or probably would not, vote for a candidate who did not support same-sex marriage, even if they agreed on many other issues.

A big tent philosophy would go a long way toward gaining ground in a county that voted 79 percent against Amendment One last year. The silent majority can no longer carry Republicans to electoral victory.

Now more than ever, the GOP must win votes back from the Democrats in the youth and minority demographics while retaining its largely white, upper-middle-class base. The answer, however, is not to become like the Democrats.

The answer is to listen to these groups’ issues, then demonstrate how well these groups’ aspirations align with Republican policies.