For a long time I've been wondering what the Republican Party doesn't understand about the Bell Curve. It seems like the Republican Party goes further and further to the right every election. I used to be a moderate Republican, but like many people I know, the party has passed me up by taking a wide right turn. I am actually surprised that the Republican Party has done as well as it has. The Bell Curve is a relatively simple concept. The population is concentrated to the middle of the Bell Curve; as you move away from the center of the Bell Curve, the density decreases. A political Bell Curve would have independents in the center of the graph, the Democrats on the left side getting more liberal moving away from the center to the left, and the Republicans on the right side of the curve, getting more conservative moving away from the center to the right.
As a candidate moves towards their own end of the curve, they’re moving away from the dense population center and closer to the sparse end of their side; in doing so, they start to lose the independent voters that are closer to the other end of the curve. Conservatives that are to the right of the Republican candidate aren't going to vote for the Democratic candidate, and liberals to the left of the Democratic candidate aren't going to vote for the Republican candidate. In other words, as a candidate moves away from the center toward their side of the curve they aren't gaining votes from their base, but they are losing votes from the independents.
This isn't rocket science, but after the election I actually heard a conservative pundit say that Romney lost the election because he wasn't conservative enough. The ironic thing about this phenomenon is that as the Republican Party gets more conservative, more Democrats are elected. Therefore, as the GOP gets more conservative, the country is led by more liberal leaders.
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