Republicans are engaged in some public “soul-searching,” which is what we usually call it when members of a defeated party explain the party went wrong by not taking the advice it had been given all along.

One of the most common arguments at the moment is that demography has become doom for Republicans. The party is worried primarily about three groups: Hispanics, women and young people. To court Hispanics, many Republicans think they need to change their policies on immigration. For women, it’s their approach to abortion and contraception. For young people, same-sex marriage.

While there is something to each of these arguments, Republicans are making a mistake by thinking about voters in these categories. The root of the party’s electoral challenge isn’t demographics – it’s economics.