“This is a real scare. And when you project forward, it just gets scarier.”

Newt Gingrich, dismissing much of the GOP post-election gestures as lip service, said Republicans have a much deeper problem than they think. “You face the grave danger of an Obama generation of young people who decide that they’re Democrats for the next 40 years,” Gingrich said. “People underestimate how big the gap is between how the country has been evolving and the way our leadership and our consultants and our professionals think about politics. That’s part of why virtually all of them who gave a prediction for Election Day were just plain wrong. And that includes me.”

As the 2012 results and aftermath have shown, there is a direct correlation between voting and demographic patterns — and the complexion of the Republican Party in Congress. Consider the numbers:

• Romney lost women by 11 percentage points. This hurt badly because women are more reliable voters than men, accounting for 53 percent of voters in 2012. There will be 24 female House and Senate Republicans, less than 9 percent of the party’s congressional membership. There will be 77 Democratic women.

• Romney lost by 44 points among Hispanics, who made up 10 percent of voters. There will be seven Hispanic Republicans in the next Congress.

• Romney lost African-Americans by 87 points. Scott of South Carolina will be the lone African-American Republican in Congress next year.

• Romney lost Asians by 47 points — a group that now accounts for 3 percent of voters in presidential elections. There will be no Asian-American Republicans on the Hill next year.