Conservative-GOP marriage over?

politico ^ | Monday May 7, 2012 | Craig Shirley

[Bigtigermike]

It should come as no surprise that the Republican National Committee has been “covertly” supporting Mitt Romney throughout the primaries, as POLITICO recently “revealed.” It was the worst-kept secret in Washington

Reagan, the über outsider, called for a “new Republican Party” back in 1977. Reagan wanted the GOP to shed its country club, corporate boardroom image and become a genuine conservative movement, focused on the individual.

Reagan’s words threatened the status quo of the scions and heiresses of the country club and corporate boardroom set. The former California governor and his conservative followers were never accepted by these insiders

[...]

The Republicans’ desire for power is usually stronger than any desire for restraint by conservatism. It always seems to leave conservatives disappointed.

Many conservatives have, in fact, decided that their beliefs have become permanently inconsistent with Republicanism. This may be more apparent in 2012 than ever before. No offense to Romney, but he is the perfect nominee for the Republican Party in 2012 because he — like the GOP — has adopted a variety of positions over the years in order to acquire power. The Etch A Sketch comment was stunningly accurate.

The “lesser of two evils” argument is now settling over the landscape. Perhaps. The “conservatives have no place else to go” storyline is being pushed. Maybe.

On the other hand, some conservatives now view this election as a clear Hobson’s Choice or possibly a Morton’s Fork. One choice is bad or nothing; the other between two bad options.

Conservatives should be clear-eyed, though. The job of the Republican Party is to deceive conservatives into handing over their support. This does not mean that conservatives can’t arrive at the conclusion that this choice is between the lesser of two evils.

But they should prepare to be disappointed.

[Bigtigermike]

Craig Shirley, president of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, is the author of two biographies of Ronald Reagan, including “Reagan’s Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign That Started It All.” His most recent book is “December 1941: 31 Days That Changed America and Saved the World.”

[Vendome]

Yep and so long as self serving A-holes and in general Tards, who can’t seem to be bothered to think about the consequences of their support for the RNC, I don’t see them changing.

I will never, ever send the RNC a plug nickel and that started with their pushing GW on us.

Sure, he turned out to be a decent President but, without 911 he would have largely been nothing more than a manager and place holder.

And the RNC, GOPe and other jerkoffs continue to push their guys and undermine mine.

Eff them to hell.

[roses of sharon]

Being a battered wife for 3 decades is obviously not working.

Time to let go Conservatives.

[jimpick]

I will support any 3rd party conservative. Screw the GOP. We have irreconcilable differences. The GOP is just out for power and not the people or the republic.

[Bigtigermike]

100% agree!!!!!!

[RIghtwardHo]

A rousing Amen to that from me, my friend.

There MUST be a divorce from the GOP if we are to survive. We outnumber them. We can rid ourselves of them. But too many of us react to fear and “news entertainment”. Stop it. Be conservative ... truly conservative. Think for yourselves and let’s get these people out of what should be our Party.

[papertyger]

The “conservatives have no place else to go” storyline is being pushed.

I don't have to "go" anywhere.

I'm perfectly content to "stay" home, and tell those critical of my choice, or claiming I will have no right to complain, to ES and D!

I'll support the GOP again when they are ready to make common cause with me instead of Marxist demagogues. Till then, I won't "eat the rich" but neither will I defend them from those who will.

[voicereason]

Wait for the ABO crowd to come out with their doom-and-gloom screed about how the Republic will end if we don’t all get behind Romney. That argument is so tired and overused, but it is all they have. The GOP / RNC leadership are taking us down the same path as the Rats, just at a different speed. Since the GOP are okay with being the party of mediocrity and avoiding embracing conservatism, they’ve certainly lost my support. (see tagline)

[dajeeps]

It isn’t just conservatives, either. I am not a conservative, but a classical liberal and I feel like there is just no more redemptive quality in the GOP. Free markets, fostering of copious competition, and respect for property rights and individual freedom is all that I am interested in and there is just no reason to believe that is what the party cares about.

There is a toxic cloud over the beltway of late, created by hyper-partisanship and the politics of personal enrichment at the expense of everyone else. It is the ugliest thing I have ever seen, and don’t care much to contribute to it. I cannot stop what others do with their votes, but they feed the cloud to the peril of us all. May God watch over us and not deny his providence for the sake of the faithful in the very trying days and years that lay ahead.

[nathanbedford]

Conservatives want to obtain and maintain political power.

In America political power comes through a political party.

Third-party movements invariably elect the political party against whom the splinter group is most opposed.

Conservatives who want to obtain and maintain political power have very little chance of succeeding with a third-party.

Conservatives who want to obtain and maintain political power are well advised to do so by taking over the Republican Party and to strictly eschew flirting with third party.

The presidential nominating process in 2012 was fair, consisting of over 20 debates and 50 primaries.

The harsh reality is nothing other than Conservatives failed to sell their message to the bulk of the Republican electorate.

Next time, the Republicans would be well advised to raise money, disband their circular firing squad, and support an electable conservative.

[RitaOK]

Romney pushed everything Obama has pushed and did it first!

Everything that Obama pushed that is most grievous is in the Supreme Court today, but Romney pushed it first.

The GOPE under Obama claimed they deplored it all and gave him not a single vote.

As kingmakers for Romney, who is a self professed PROGRESSIVE, the GOPE will now PASS the VERY SAME crap when pushed by Romney.

They want to push the party LEFT and intend to do so, with our help.

VOTE ROMNEY, THE TEMPLATE FOR OBAMA RULE /S

[Tau Food]

I really look forward to the party unifying after Romney loses. It’s absolutely essential that Romney get stomped so that the party elites accept that conservatives and Christians cannot be taken for granted again.

[Dawgreg]

I divorced the RNC after they “chose” McCain in 2008. I voted for Sarah Palin not that knothead from Arizona but no more. More and more I’m seeing the RNC as bad as the DNC. We are in dire need of a true constitutional conservative party.

[katiedidit1]

I read something just recently about the RNC violating rule #11 and I think rule #38 during the primary process and declaring Mitt as the nominee before he has the necessary delegates. I did not research it but it was circulated on a Ron Paul blog.

[Houghton M.]

Not buying this. Conservatives outnumbered GOP-e’s. But we bickered among ourselves and handed it to Romney. He was open about his strategy being “divide and conquer” and even then we did his bidding. We even used obvious Romney-planted sound bytes to discredit the “other guy,” the conservative we didn’t agree with.

We have no one to blame but ourselves. Until we learn to unite around a single candidate, they will defeat us.

Taking over the Republican Party is the only real option. Taking our bat and ball and going home only guarantees the Devil’s win.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

[RitaOK]

I am very afraid that you are exactly right.

It is scary as hell, this REBELLION of ours, but it can only get far worse, fast, if we do not begin it.

We must vote, “other”, for the presidential box and do our best down ticket.

The Marxists have been nothing if not patient and methodical, and we must be the same and trust God for the rest.

The John Cornyns, McConells and McCains and Grahams have killed us off.

” DOGS AGAINST ROMNEY! “

[jimpick]

I don’t care if a third party gets the dems elected as my conservative beliefs are not being met by the GOP. I will continue to support conservative republicans but will not be bullied into electing a liberal in the GOP. The GOP is no longer a 100% lock on my vote. They have proven that good conservatives are outcasts to them. I will no longer be scared to vote third party if that is what is required to get a conservative elected. If the GOP wants to get elected then they will have to move to the right, otherwise the dems will get elected and they will lose their power. It goes both ways the dem party gets elected if they do not support conservative values as well.

SCREW you GOP I have waited patiently for far to long. If not this election when will I make my stand against the liberalization of the GOP. I will tell you when it will be, the first chance I get to vote for a conservative that is when. It is up to the GOP to stop the dems from getting elected by preventing the party from fracturing.

[onyx]

The best candidate doesn’t always win.

The best campaign does, (ruthless as it just may be, and his was).

[papertyger]

The presidential nominating process in 2012 was fair, consisting of over 20 debates and 50 primaries. The harsh reality is nothing other than Conservatives failed to sell their message to the bulk of the Republican electorate.

Nonsense. The narrative has been orchestrated by a very finely tuned information dissemination mechanism endorsed by both major sides of the contest.

The only way to break that agreement is to demonstrate to one side or the other that further participation will result in not just permanent minority status, but inevitable failure as a self sustaining entity.

You don't do that by continuing to play a game where rules wink in and out of existence with no other purpose than to insure you lose.

[katiedidit1]

Conservatives sent the RNC a message during the 2010 interim elections and also with Lugar, Hatch and in Wisconsin. The RNC did not listen.
There was considerable shifting of primary dates during this years process and that was done to benefit Romney.
I know many republicans that will NOT support Mitt Romney and are no longer giving a dime to the RNC.

[svcw]

To the headline: if it’s not it should be.

[RitaOK]

Sorry, but it is the GOPE who have handed us the devil by force feed. I can’t swallow this time.

These other candidates were not serious, but entered unfunded, hoping and waiting for funding. The GOPE was funded BY Romney, which indebted them to him far in advance of the contest, as you know, and then THEY funded him.

We have to find our candidate NOW and begin funding him, and also our best conservatives in office, and on the farm team.

Who’s it gonna be?

[papertyger]

we bickered among ourselves and handed it to Romney.

Bull. The only thing "we" did wrong was tolerate the GOPE passivity during the Palin crucifixion.

[GJones2]

>”The harsh reality is nothing other than Conservatives failed to sell their message to the bulk of the Republican electorate.”<

Though you don’t seem to be getting much support in this thread, I agree with you. The Republican Party isn’t far enough to the right to suit me either, but Republican primary voters obviously make up the more conservative half of the country’s electorate (or least leftist). If a conservative can’t win there, how the hell is he going to be able to win the general election?

Let’s face it. We lost again. I didn’t like McCain last time, and I don’t like Romney this time. That’s no reason to let Obama win, though. The writer cites Reagan, but if I recall correctly, Reagan continued to work within the Republican party while his supporters were still in a minority, until he finally had enough support to win the nomination. He didn’t attempt to start an independent party. If he had, I don’t think he would have been President.

[Vendome]

F^&*(K them....

[Vendome]

Word!

[GraceG]

I am assuming that by "The Rest of Us" they mean whomever they can pander to while causing their base to balk...

[papertyger]

There are many taboos that have been cast aside in the pursuit of “winning” since Reagan’s time.

[GraceG]

[EternalVigilance]

Well, it might as well be a fellow FReeper:

http://www.tomhoefling.com/index.html

[nathanbedford]

We have a process for determining what the Republican Party stands for. Conservatives were never denied an opportunity to compete for control of that process. For heavens sake, Ron Paul is still permitted access to the process.

To somehow argue that the process over the last several months has been unfair or unrepresentative of the will of the Republican electorate is absurd.

As a foaming at the mouth flopping on the floor conservative, I am bitterly disappointed that the party has chosen a certifiable Rino as its standard bearer but I will not deceive myself that I have somehow been defrauded. I supported Newt from the very beginning, before Jim Robinson came out in his support and for he explicitly endorsed views I expressed in a vanity. I caught a great deal of flak for doing so and I caught that flak from equally committed conservatives here on Free Republic.

I lost because I could not persuade enough people to see things my way.

Guess what, that is not the fault of the establishment of the GOP. That is my fault.

I will not compounded my error and my own failure by ensuring the election of Barack Obama and the diminishment of the only political party which has a chance of acting as the vehicle for true conservatism.

[ansel12]

The Romney/Rockefeller wing of the GOP was fighting hardball for the 2012 nomination when they started working to stop, and to discredit, Governor Palin back in September of 2008.

[Dogbert41]

Nonsense. We should stay with the Republican party and continue to fight the good fight against the loyal opposition. If we just meet them half-way, and be civil and tolerant, avoid any confrontation, even the media will start to come around.

[BlackElk]

We shall far more easily take over the GOP when Robozombie is memorably disposed of, when the next POTUS election will be in 2016 instead of 2020, when conservatives figure out how to unite around ONE CANDIDATE while keeping a few others stashed strictly in reserve just in case of GOP-E and Axelrod, when ONE of the reserve candidates fully qualifies as a third party candidate for the ballot in each and every state and promises to withdraw everywhere ONLY if the GOP nominee is acceptably conservative and, otherwise, to remain in as a spoiler everywhere.

No more cringing, cowardly, unprincipled greedhead RINO elitists MEANS no more cringing, cowardly, unprincipled greedhead RINO elitists. It is as simple as that.

Robozombie is EVERY BIT the devil that Obozo is. top kidding yourself.

[Bigtigermike]

Agreed!! The GOPE openly attacked Sarah and conservative joined in by saying that she was so beat up by them and the media that she was a lost cause and so they claim that they loved her but had to throw her overboard for the sake of conservatism

[Hugin]

Brilliantly stated, sir. Bravo!

[Vendome]

I wish but, we are closer.

[Houghton M.]

By 2016 SCOTUS will be packed with Obama stooges for the next 20 years.

You won’t even recognize America then.

Live in denial if you wish. The rest of us will fight to the bitter end, no thanks to you.

[papertyger]

Conservatives were never denied an opportunity to compete for control of that process.

Sure they were.

That the denial is rather Byzantine in character doesn't make it any less dishonest, nor any less efficacious.

[Houghton M.]

“Sorry, but it is the GOPE who have handed us the devil by force feed”

No, Romney was upfront about his strategy being to divide Conservatives. His guy Adelson funded a zombie candidate for 6 weeks (after Super Tuesday). Yeah, Romney used his and Adelson’s money to implement his strategy but conservatives fell into line and ignored the obvious, plain fact that Adelson was a stalking-horse for Rommney.

Denial is not smart.

[onyx]

I’m too tired tonight. Ping to me, so hopefully I can remember to better reply tomorrow.

[GJones2]

>”If we just meet them half-way, and be civil and tolerant, avoid any confrontation, even the media will start to come around.”<

I don’t recall anybody here saying that. I believe in being confrontational myself. That doesn’t require letting a worse evil prevail just to spite a lesser one, though.

[llandres]

“It’s absolutely essential that Romney get stomped so that the party elites accept that conservatives and Christians cannot be taken for granted again.”

They still won’t get it - did they “get it” when McLame lost? No. They’ll always blame other things - BHO’s “likeability”, racism, etc.

If Romney loses, that means the most evil, destructive, illegal, America-hating (Islamist) “President” in our lifetime wins and our country loses - permanently. If that happens, a LOT of things will come to pass (very real, unimaginable things), but “the party unifying” will NOT be one of them.

I like Robb7’s thread from this weekend about a mass protest at the convention - we have a last chance to get a conservative nominee before it’s too late. Otherwise, I pray enough voters will still see the immediate threat of a “lame duck” (who’ll be anything BUT lame) BHO to our survival and vote against him and his diabolical, treasonous crew.

[GraceG]

[re_nortex]

The best candidate doesn’t always win.

Exhibit A of that undeniable truth is 1964. I knew that America was taking the wrong path when Barry Goldwater was so soundly defeated. Thank goodness for Mississippi and a few (far too few) other states for bravely standing for Constitutional Conservatism as shown by this map from the 1964 Presidential Election:

I can only imagine how much better Our Country would be today had there been a President Goldwater. Among other things, there would have been a quick and decisive victory over Communism in Southeast Asia. And Ted Kennedy's wide open immigration act of 1965 would have stemmed the tide of illegals before it ever happened.

[nathanbedford]

Where? By whom? When?

Gingrich was on Fox news every second day for more than a year, he certainly had ample opportunity to make his case.

Michele Bachmann had access to the Tea Party and all the support that implies.

Herman Cain had the support of the Republican rank and file for a time, raised ample money, and could not hold the support.

Rick Perry had the support of the Republican rank and file for a while and access to all the money he needed, and fell short all by himself with no help from the establishment.

Rick Santorum proved that if one perseveres and runs a truly courageous campaign he will be given a fair hearing but he simply could not convince enough Republicans that he was presidential timber.

On the other hand, darlings of the establishment had problems gathering traction.

Virtually no one was consistently denied access to the debates, each had an equal right to raise money, all had reasonable access to the media.

Was there perfect equality in all things at all times, of course not this is, after all, politics. But the process was substantially fair. Do not confuse anger at the result with unfairness of process.

[GraceG]

Better version.

[papertyger]

By 2016 SCOTUS will be packed with Obama stooges for the next 20 years. You won’t even recognize America then.

Big deal...what SCOTUS decision in living memory has moved our society overtly to the right over the objections and efforts of the left?

People like you try to convince us losing slower is actually winning.

[llandres]

“We have no one to blame but ourselves. Until we learn to unite around a single candidate, they will defeat us. Taking over the Republican Party is the only real option. Taking our bat and ball and going home only guarantees the Devil’s win.”

You speak much truth and wisdom, HM.