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</p><div id="attachment_51463" style="width: 970px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-51463" src="; alt="快活林性息 political science professor Lawrence Becker says Republicans needs to broaden their base if they hope to win national elections." width="960" height="540" srcset=" 300w, 768w, 960w" sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /><p class="wp-caption-text">快活林性息 political science professor Lawrence Becker says Republicans needs to broaden their base if they hope to win national elections. Image credit Elena Sunagatova, iStock.</p></div>
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<p style="font-weight: 400;">Political pundits are pointing to the defeat of several candidates backed by Donald Trump in the midterm elections as a sign that the former president鈥檚 grip on the Republican Party is waning.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">However, California State University, Northridge <a href=" science</a> professor Lawrence Becker noted that the coalitional politics that have marked Trump鈥檚 tenure as a leader of the party emerged long before he became the Republicans鈥� presidential nominee in 2016.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Republican leaders have not expanded their coalition in recent decades, Becker said, and instead have focused their efforts on activating and energizing their existing base of voters 鈥� a coalition that is predominantly white, older and not college educated.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">鈥淚f you zoom out and look at the last 30 years of what鈥檚 been happening to the Republican Party, what you see is a party that has become more homogenous,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hose shifts have generally been in a direction of depending, more and more, on parts of the population that you don鈥檛 want to depend on because they are declining as a share of the electorate.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">鈥淚f the base of your party is white voters, that鈥檚 a declining share of the electorate over time,鈥� said Becker, who teaches in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. 鈥淚f the base of your party is noncollege-educated, white voters, that鈥檚 not the side that you want to be on. If the base of your party is older voters and the other party is winning the vast majority of young voters, that鈥檚 a problem because young voters are going to be around a lot longer than older voters.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">鈥淭he problem that the Republication Party has is not so much that it doesn鈥檛 have a base that votes, but they have concentrated their appeal to voters that represent a declining share of the electorate,鈥� he added.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">As for the divisive rhetoric that has persisted among core members of the Republican party, Becker noted that 鈥渢here has always been some of the party that tolerated this sort of stuff.鈥�</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">He noted that former President Ronald Reagan famously campaigned in Neshoba County, Mississippi where the Freedom Summer murders of three civil rights workers had taken place in 1964 and declared his support for 鈥榮tates rights.鈥� 鈥淭he campaign didn鈥檛 pick that at random. He was appealing to a particular part of that party,鈥� Becker said.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">鈥淲e think, now, about the Republican Party having these elder statesmen 鈥� Nelson Rockefeller, Gerald Ford 鈥� who were moderate and centrist,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not that the element we associate with Trump wasn鈥檛 there. It just wasn鈥檛 quite as big and it really wasn鈥檛 the large portion of the party as it is now.鈥�</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Becker said the ideals of fairness, equality and justice for all were not the only values that have been present throughout American history.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">鈥淲hen we talk about our core values of democracy, freedom and so on, we need to remember that slavery was written into the Constitution,鈥� Becker said. 鈥淭here isn鈥檛 some part of American history where this was only some tiny minority of people who felt this way. There have been periods of American history where it has been more of a minority viewpoint, and certainly a minority point of view within a major political party, but it鈥檚 always been that a substantial part of America has undemocratic, racist ideas.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">鈥淭he efforts we see in some states, by state legislators and governors, to try to reform the curriculum at the K-12 level to deny that point 鈥� to deny that we have these kind of stains on our history 鈥� are disgraceful,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his part of America has always been there. What鈥檚 changed is that the idea has taken root as the orthodoxy of such a significant part of one of the country鈥檚 major political parties.鈥�</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Becker said he does not think the Republican Party will return to a party that is grounded in democracy, 鈥渨ith a small d,鈥� and policies based on principles until it is 鈥渟oundly defeated鈥� at the polls.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">鈥淭he fact is, the Republican Party has lost the national popular vote for president 鈥� seven of the last eight times 鈥� including the last four elections,鈥� Becker said. 鈥淭hey haven鈥檛 won the popular vote for president since 2004. Part of the reason they鈥檙e not picking up on those alarm signals is that, even though they鈥檝e lost the popular vote seven of the last eight times, they were able to win the Electoral College a couple of times. So, it didn鈥檛 sting as much to lose the popular vote.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">鈥淲hile they are losing elections more often than not, they鈥檙e not losing by much, so they鈥檙e not getting a clear message from voters that the Republicans have a losing strategy and platform,鈥� he said.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Republicans also have a 鈥渂uilt-in advantage鈥� in the U.S. Senate, he said.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">鈥淭he fact that there鈥檚 equal representation among the states over-represents rural parts of the country, places where Republicans have the advantage,鈥� he said, adding that the Electoral College also over represents the interests of rural voters. 鈥淪mall states have more say in the Electoral College than their populations warrant.鈥�</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Becker said Republicans are in a 鈥渢ransition period鈥� as they continue to score election victories by energizing their base, but their base is shrinking in many of the states they used to count on.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">鈥淭exas is becoming more of a purple state as it鈥檚 becoming more urbanized, less white and more college-educated,鈥� he said. 鈥淕eorgia is also a good example of that too. We鈥檙e seeing the state change politically because the demographics of that state have changed. Georgia is so much on our radar because the demographic change has happened faster there than in other places. But it鈥檚 changing Texas and other states, too.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">鈥淚t changed California dramatically,鈥� he added. 鈥淛ust a few decades ago, California was solidly a Republican state. Then, it became a purple state and shifted to becoming a solidly blue state seemingly overnight. Not too long ago, Republicans were pushing legislation like Proposition 209 (which ended affirmative action in California) and Proposition 187 (an anti-immigrant measure that was approved by the state鈥檚 voters and overturned by a federal court). It鈥檚 unimaginable that the state of California would vote that way now.鈥�</p>
Political pundits are pointing to the defeat of several candidates backed by Donald Trump in the midterm elections as a...