What can Republicans do to be competitive in the Pacific Northwest again?

[Sumner 1868]

Same thing they can do to be competitive everywhere else: focus more on economic issues and less on social issues.

Because everyone agrees with the Republicans on economics, after all.

No; because people agree with Republicans on economics more than they do on social issues.

I don't know where this idea of "fiscal conservative social liberal Northwest" came from. There is no mass fiscally conservative element in the state and there never has been. Even the Eastside has voted for ballot measures to increase the minimum wage, build more hospitals, etc, etc.

[Sumner 1868]

What can they do to make WA & OR competitive again? I assume it will have to be after the gay rights issue has died down, which it should have by 2020. Will a moderation on climate change be necessary, due to the region's high number of environmentalists? How would the emerging Libertarian segment of the party play there in a national election?

Have a Ralph Nader type candidate spliting the Democratic Vote

That was Bush's strategy for winning Oregon in 2000. It didn't work.

[Sumner 1868]

Everyone is forgetting that the Northwest has traditionally been Democratic. This goes back to the Depression.

[Sumner 1868]

Republicans do control the WA State Senate and came very close in the House.

That's a side effect of fatigue over thirty years of one party in government combined with Eastern Washington becoming ever more lopsided toward the GOP. Holding the WA legislature in 1995-1999 did not help the GOP-in fact, it hurt them.

[Sumner 1868]

Everyone is forgetting that the Northwest has traditionally been Democratic. This goes back to the Depression.

Republicans dominated Pacific Northwest from 1952-1988

Kennedy barely lost the state, and Carter came fairly close. Both could have won with a little more money/time/focus. And, except for a brief Republican period in 1980-1982, Democrats have controlled at least one branch of the state government since 1956. Your also forgetting it went for Humphrey in 1968.

[Sumner 1868]

Everyone is forgetting that the Northwest has traditionally been Democratic. This goes back to the Depression.

Republicans dominated Pacific Northwest from 1952-1988

Kennedy barely lost the state, and Carter came fairly close. Both could have won with a little more money/time/focus. And, except for a brief Republican period in 1980-1982, Democrats have controlled at least one branch of the state government since 1956. Your also forgetting it went for Humphrey in 1968.

Oregon had all republican governors from 1939-1987 except from 1957-1959 and 1975-1979.

Oregon went republican every time in those 40 years presidential in every year from 1952-1992 except 1964 and 1988.

I was referring to my state. Oregon has always been somewhat more conservative than Washington. Although Oregon came extremely close to supporting Carter in 1976.

[Sumner 1868]

The problem with the Pacific Northwest, is that the interior of those states is far too conservative to produce candidates who can occasionally overcome the liberal majority.

Let's compare Massachusetts and Washington. Both are liberal states dominated by a large city. The MA GOP resembles the Canadian or UK Tories. Even though they lose most of the time, they still produce politicians who can take advantage when the Democrats screw up. Not so with the WA GOP, which resembles Idaho. Now having a more right wing party is fine when you live in a right wing or even moderate state, but a right wing party certainly won't be able to take advantage of Dem screw ups in a very left wing state.

Seattle isn't the reason Democrats do so well. It's the King County suburbs, and, to a lesser extent, Pierce County.

[Sumner 1868]

So long as the Dems in WA doesnt introduce an income tax, there is no reason to vote GOP at the state level.

And this is very much the truth. There is nothing in the GOP platform on social, fiscal or foreign policy that appeals to the state. I would even suspect that a Democratic governor introducing a state income tax wouldn't be enough, as it would likely be repealed immediately via Eyeman-sponsored ballot measure.

[Sumner 1868]

So long as the Dems in WA doesnt introduce an income tax, there is no reason to vote GOP at the state level.

And this is very much the truth. There is nothing in the GOP platform on social, fiscal or foreign policy that appeals to the state. I would even suspect that a Democratic governor introducing a state income tax wouldn't be enough, as it would likely be repealed immediately via Eyeman-sponsored ballot measure.

These are all good points.  Looks like these days Washington is probably even less likely to switch to the Republicans than Massachusetts.  The Republicans in Massachusetts (Charlie Baker, Paul Cellucci, William Weld) would be Democrats in much of the rest of the country.  Meanwhile, the Republicans in Washington are as conservative as anyone in the party--fine for Eastern Washington but with little appeal in the dominant Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia sector.

It's not just the cities. Republicans also lose in the coastal counties.

[Sumner 1868]

Here is what I say. Who cares? As a conservative I dont consider the people in SEA-TAC and Portland to be people I am interested in chasing or pandering to for votes. They are primarily atheists, socialists and people who reject American Exceptionalism and are Blame American Firsters. They wallow in multiculturalism and moral relativism and are increasingly anti-semitic with their support for the genocidal BDS movement.

It will be a wonderful day when white coastal liberal gentries, especially in CA, are outnumbered by hispanics who want their own candidates and not benevolent white liberals representing them.  Those whites whose primary concern is climate change even if it means banning energy jobs, destroying manufacturing and turning the state into a third world country with no upward mobility for anyone not employed in Silicon Valley or Hollywood.

Ugh.  This is why our party is sucking more and more everyday.

WE HAVE A WINNER!

[Sumner 1868]

Here is what I say. Who cares? As a conservative I dont consider the people in SEA-TAC and Portland to be people I am interested in chasing or pandering to for votes. They are primarily atheists, socialists and people who reject American Exceptionalism and are Blame American Firsters. They wallow in multiculturalism and moral relativism and are increasingly anti-semitic with their support for the genocidal BDS movement.

It will be a wonderful day when white coastal liberal gentries, especially in CA, are outnumbered by hispanics who want their own candidates and not benevolent white liberals representing them.  Those whites whose primary concern is climate change even if it means banning energy jobs, destroying manufacturing and turning the state into a third world country with no upward mobility for anyone not employed in Silicon Valley or Hollywood.

Ugh.  This is why our party is sucking more and more everyday.

Your side hasnt won an election since 1956. Your side also was very happy with the "arrangement" that the House GOP had with the Dems prior to 1994. Conservatives brought the GOP into majority status, not moderate and liberals.

Your not the majority party, you just have the convenience of presently holding the Congress.

In any case, this is all off topic.

[Sumner 1868]

Well, since this thread is dangerously close to going off the rails, I conclude by restating they can do nothing and nothing shall succeed for the foreseeable decades.

[Sumner 1868]

Abandon their anti-environment rhetoric.  Get rid of clowns such as Inhofe.

It's not enough.