Conservatives: Don't Panic

After Mitt Romney's loss, there's been plenty of talk about how demographic trends will require Republicans to move to the center if they want to capture the White House, writes John Merline at IBD. What's missing from all this handwringing is the fact that conservatives today account for a bigger share of voters than they did when Reagan won his 1980 landslide.

He uses exit polling data to make these points:

• The country remains center-right:  In 1980, 32% of voters were conservative, according to exit polls at the time. By 1996, when Clinton won reelection, that share had risen to 33%. This year, exit polls show that 35% of voters are conservative, far more than 25% who identify themselves as liberal. The share of moderates has remained relatively steady at 40% to 45%.
• Voters haven't suddenly decided they love big government. Voters who say government is doing too much climbed from 43% in 2008 to 51% in 2012. 
• This election exposed a glaring disconnect between voters' ideology and the person they picked to run the country.  51% say the federal government is too big and does too much, 52% said the country is seriously off track; 63% said taxes should not be raised to help cut the deficit; and almost half want ObamaCare repealed either in whole or in part. Yet substantial portions of these conservative-leaning voters actually cast their ballots for Obama, the one candidate who opposes them on each of these issues.

Concludes Merline:

All this suggests that if conservatives want to win presidential elections, they don't need to dust off their "compassionate conservative" hats, or make peace with high taxes and an intrusive federal state.

They do, however, need to learn how to communicate with today's voters and help them understand how a limited federal government and a thriving private sector will deliver unmatched prosperity to everyone.

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