No one really expected John McCain to beat Barack Obama toward the end of this year’s long presidential campaign. Bush and the Republicans carried far too much baggage with them. McCain’s punch-line campaign strategy (Maverick) did him no favors, but the senator honestly did as well as any Republican could have hoped for against Obama and the Democratic tide.

The question is, what do the Republicans do now? President Bush’s electoral gains for his party in the 2000 and 2004 elections disappeared on Nov. 4 as quickly as the stock market fell in October. The Republicans ignored issues salient to the present, such as the economy and even foreign policy, in favor of secondary social issues. This misplacement of priorities was further highlighted by their ineffective attacks on Obama himself. Obama carried himself too well for “inexperienced” to hold convincingly, and “socialist” isn’t quite as ugly of a word as it used to be.

They won’t win again if they stick to this plan. McCain abandoned many promising ideas in his attempt to get the Republican right excited about him. Real immigration reform was frowned upon, and no constructive arguments were brought to the national debate on conservation and climate change. And where were the innovative conservative ideas on the economy? Republicans can’t allow the Democrats to get a monopoly on plans to weather the recession.

The so-called social conservatives are still going to be an important part of the party. Recent marriage proposition votes this year strongly indicate that social issues are not going away. However, such Republicans should play sidekick to the new intellectual conservatives, who are now tasked with switching the focus of their party to more pressing issues. Red-staters hoping for victory in 2012 should probably shed their “President Palin” dreams now.

The GOP sorely needs a restructuring of policy and outlook. There is room for government conflict, always popular around the country, but fear-mongering should be tempered with actual policies and new ideas that actually help our country. New ideologies must arise that address problems and offer solutions. This probably means cooperating and assisting the Obama administration while the Republicans are out of power. The worst possible situation for Republicans in four years would be if the nation is in good health and the Democrats can legitimately claim responsibility for most of it.

Perhaps the most disturbing election statistic for Republicans should be how soundly they were beaten among minorities. They lost Asian and Hispanic voters 2-to-1 and won no significant portion of the African-American community. Our country is constantly becoming more diverse. Minority populations are growing faster than traditional Republican populations. Conservatives should be courting these demographics, not alienating them. This means more McCain-like ideas on issues like immigration reform. It also means new leadership, as embodied by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, the first Indian American governor and a strong candidate to help shed Republicans’ unpopular image with minorities.

Young people need to be mobilized, as well. The party can no longer hope for white, old and religious votes to sustain it. They’re going to have to move left and get independents. How the Republicans address these challenges will ultimately decide how electable they’ll be in 2012.

David Dawson is a junior in political science. He can be reached at [email protected].