Trounced in last week's national election, Republicans are trying to figure out how to respond. Contrary to the media narrative that holds the GOP knows it needs a drastic makeover, there is actually much angst on the question. Given the deep unpopularity of incumbent Republican President George W. Bush and vast economic upheaval that the public tends to blame on GOP policies, some think Republican nominee John McCain did well to get 46 percent of the vote.

This is a plausible position; it's hardly inconceivable that a Republican could return to the White House in 2012 if President Barack Obama falters.

But it is also a deeply risky position for the GOP, one which ignores ominous trends.

The Electoral College perspective is particularly grim. Rocky Mountain states are trending Democrat. The party's stranglehold on the South is gone. Practically the only states that remain GOP locks are those in the poorest parts of the Old South.

The party's share of young voters fell for the third straight election, barely topping 30 percent. Better-educated and wealthier voters - the folks who vote most and contribute most - also are no longer a firm Republican bastion.

Part of the GOP decline with these groups is due to the Bush administration's many problems, particularly its heavy spending and perceived incompetence. But both polling and anecdotal data point to another factor as well: the ascendance of religious and social conservatives, whose stridency discomfits pro-business and anti-government voters who normally lean Republican.

We share this discomfiture. A low point of the recent campaign came when McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, told a Greensboro, N.C., crowd that it was good to be back in a "pro-America" part of the country.

Such red meat may rally the GOP base. But for a growing number of voters, it is indigestible.

REPRINTED FROM THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE.

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.