Given my lengthy paper trail in favor of President Obama, it might strike folks funny that I’m worried about the Republican Party. I’m worried that it won’t settle the internal forces that have turned it into a regional, reactionary party that looks nothing like the rest of the country, worried that the GOP has policy positions out of touch with the rest of the country. I’m worried that the tone coming from some Republicans won’t make their party any more attractive to the very voters it needs to survive.

Plenty has been written about the demographic demolition of the GOP. African Americans, Latinos, gay men and lesbians, young people in general and young women in particular went for Obama in big numbers. I’ve written how most of these groups are ripe for the picking if Republicans would just show them some love. But such a change of direction doesn’t seem likely when many Republicans, in tone or in policy, are seemingly hostile to things those folks care about or are simply disrespectful.

“If Republicans are serious about repairing their party’s standing among women, gay and Hispanic voters,” the New York Times editorial board wrote yesterday, “they need to adjust some policies and stop sending hostile messages.” The board highlighted the reauthorization of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act. The measure, which received bipartisan support in the Senate, included new protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans and it also increased the number of visas available to domestic violence victims who are undocumented immigrants. House Republicans stripped those two provisions from its bill.