Perhaps, but then they would have lost this one aswell, which they didn't.
By that argument if the Republicans win in 2014 they have no problem with their message, and if they win in 2016 it is the Democrats that have the massive message problem.
Even a conservative party needs to move forward sometimes, because former voters will be replaced by people with differend views. Not to mention that being in favor of a more strict immigration system does not win you the latino vote. That could work if you stop the latino vote from becoming to big of a factor but it is too late for it.
So the Republicans should pander to the Latinos by ignoring the law like the Democrats? Do you realize how poorly that makes the Latinos look? But the thing is that being more in favor of the terribly unfair thing called Amnesty will not get you more Latino votes. 1986 Reagan gave 3 million people Amnesty, in 1988 George HW Bush did not win the Latino vote. In 2006 John McCain was one of the ones leading the charge on amnesty and immigration reform, in 2008 he failed to win the Latino vote.
But that isn't all, there are more things that didn't really help the GOP out. Remember those inteligent remarks about rape not making women pregnant that some of the senators from the gop said,namely Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin? Both got defeated.
And I am still waiting for someone to explain what Richard Mourdock said that was so wrong.
But most importantly when you can't win an election with the economy in the crapper, either that is not true or you did something wrong as a candidate or a political party.
Or more realistically the public did not blame the incumbent for the economy being in the crapper.
2010 it was a attempt at getting rid of the ones in power, and it got worse.
The Democrats were the ones swept out of power, so again what does that say about their message?
Maybe reality has a liberal agenda
Care to explain then why the liberal economic policy is so divorced from reality then?