On last night's Glenn Beck Program, guest-host Dana Loesch sat down with an audience of young conservatives to discuss the future of the GOP. The 2012 election proved to be much closer than the mainstream media and Democrats expected. But, at the end of the day, President Obama won the election because of the overwhelming support of a key demographic: the youth.
President Obama received 67% of the youth vote, compared to Mitt Romney's 30%. In many states, this margin dictated whether the state went red or blue. Had Romney been able to just split the youth vote, he may have been able to win the election.
"Twenty-three million young adults between the ages of 18 to 29 voted, which accounted for an increase in the percentage of the electorate, 18 to 19%," Dana explained. "Now think about it, 333,000 votes in four different swing states would have made the difference between a President Obama and a President Romney. Now, Romney lost the popular vote 48 to 51%. That is not a landslide loss... Folks, these aren’t big numbers. These aren’t numbers that couldn’t have been overcome."
Because these numbers are so nominal, Dana believes no single voting block provided such an impactful loss than the youth vote. Not the black vote. Not the female vote. The youth vote.
So how can the GOP overcome this problem? What can the Republican Party do to excite and mobilize this historically left-leaning block? It is clear the GOP has the principles and the message to allow this demographic to grow and prosper, but there is an obvious communication problem.
To discuss this problem, Dana spoke to Amy Lutz, a blogger and editor for TheCollegeConservative.com, and 24-year-old Georgia State Representative Michael Caldwell.
Another major problem the GOP faces is the culture. The leftists in Hollywood and beyond have monopolized the weapon that is popular culture for far too long to propagate Democratic ideals. But with so few Republicans in the industry, what can the GOP do to win the culture? Dana sat down with Brandon Morse of MisfitPolitics.co and Michelle Fields of NextGeneration.tv to discuss inroads the Republican Party make into the cultural landscape.