If this cycle has taught us anything it is to remind us that the one sure fire way to clear a path for an establishment moderate is to encourage a scripture quoting social conservative (no need to be a small government conservative) to enter the race and stay in until the RINO wins. There is this persistent block of voters that will waste time and energy on silly candidates like Robertson, Huckabee and Santorum - candidates that have exactly zero chance to win a national general election, but can do well enough among the part of the GOP base that is made up of social conservatives to splinter the grass roots/activists and allow a clear path for the mushy moderate candidate.
If I were someone like Chris Christie or Jeb Bush, I'd be planning right now on which clearly unelectable general election social conservative to encourage to get in the GOP primaries for 2016 or 2020. Maybe pull Pat Robertson out of the 700 club studio? That is, if he isn't too busy explaining why the recent outbreak of tornado's is because people didn't pray enough. Believe it or not, Robertson actually did win some caucuses and over a million votes during his primary run in 1988. Oh sure, he could never win a general election, but he can split the grass roots and clear a path for the next establishment moderate in the next election cycle.
Christie, Bush and Daniels should also do everything they can to guarantee that Iowa maintains its status as the first in the nation caucus. That way the evangelicals and homeschoolers can prop up another candidate like Huckabee and Robertson.
You’re probably right. It’s probably time for social conservatives to forget about politics and direct their energies elsewhere. Time to give all my money to my church and forget Republican candidates. We’re not a constituency that either party has much use for. BTW, I’d stop using the term RINO. The people it’s directed against are clearly the dominant group, so this notion that “real” Republicans are something other than this dominant faction seems nonsensical. The Bush faction is/are the “real” Republicans, everybody else is just along for the ride.
Fantastic - and depressing - post. Thanks for sharing.
The sad fact of the matter is that there are a lot of socially conservative voters who aren’t smart enough to figure out that the same government that can come in and shut down websites for pr0n can also come in and shut down their blogs for saying politically incorrect things about sodomites.
>> The impulsive base, jumped on Santorum before they even had a clue about who or what he was.
>> There is this persistent block of voters that will waste time and energy on silly candidates
You’re both correct. It’s moral vanity.
Post of the year right there.