We need to keep this conversation going, and I’m not sure we have the answer yet, though we are asking all the right questions.
I have this one, for now.
Why didn’t FL GOP primary voters punish Romney in the primary for his negative attack?
I suppose the answer is that the way GOP voters punish the negativity is by staying home. Which makes no sense at all to me, but that may be the reality of the situation.
We also have to contend with some strange data points. Two Tea Party idiots lost Senate races that they should have won. And Romney won those states, right? So it’s not as simple that we have to double down on Tea Party approach. I’m glad Lugar was ousted, but Mourdock gave away that Senate seat. And that was AFTER Akin! Morons, the both of them.
Then, on the other hand, we have Cruz. No Senator is more conservative than Cruz. He ran a Reaganesque campaign, and brought together ALL aspects of the GOP and independent coalition. He ran 18,000 votes ahead of Romney in Harris County (Houston area). Romney actually LOST that County (by a few hundred). Cruz romped to victory. We have to have an explanation for that. Perhaps the answer is “Intelligent and Optimistic Tea Party Conservatism.” Which is to say, Reaganism.
I do know that we can’t be drawn into trying to beat the Democrats by offering Democrat lite. I know that we can’t pursue the Hispanic vote by being soft on the border. Hispanics, like the rest of America, want entitlements, and they want an open border. They might be pro life, but how are we supposed to reach those that are strongly pro life, when we don’t put life front and center out of deference to the suburban mommies? The GOP is clueless and self-contradictory when it comes to their strategies of how to “get the Hispanic vote”.
I want to maintain a lot of skepticism, because I don’t want to be wrong.
But I’m not convinced that a full-throated, conservative/libertarian alliance that is intelligent, optimistic, rooted in small business [rather than Wall Street capitalism...which Reagan picked up, but only after taking Main Street], which is unapologetically pro life and socially conservative is not the answer. I think it might well be the answer.
Heaven knows, from a policy perspective, we are Greece unless we deal with the fiscal and debt crisis and the only way to do that is 1) economic growth, 2) sane entitlement reform, and 3) cutting discretionary spending [least important, and least essential...but still helpful].
I also know that across the board, we can’t win with the Akins of the world, or the Pat Buchanans. But we DEFINITELY can’t with the BushDoleMcCainRomney losers express either.
We know how to lose.
Will we figure out how to win?
You were doing great till the end. Cut it at helpful, and you nailed it out of the park.
Perhaps we lose because republicans like you are clueless. My hispanic neighbor, a first generation legal American from Mexico, doesn't want his taxes paying entitlements, and if anything, he hates illegal immigration more than most here on FR.
Your fundamental assumptions may be incorrect.
/johnny
You asked on great question? Why did two tea party candidates lose states Mitt won? Because they were awful candidates. The TP, and I am part of that group, needs to stay with guys like Ron Johnson and Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio and Rand Paul - and away from foolish amateurs.
Look, I cannot stand the insider crowd, but that doesn’t mean simply being from the “outside” makes you competent. It does not. Angle, O Donnell, Akin and Mourdock are incompetent dolts. The TP did a great job in winning, but they rode the wrong horse in all of those races.
It is not enough to simply be an outsider. There is more to this business than that.
I agree. Here’s an excerpt of an article op-ed I came across:
“...Lord insists we need more “New Reagans” — people of all backgrounds, all races, all religions — who are well-versed in conservatism.
And where did Marco Rubio, now hailed by the Republican establishment as a 2016 favorite, come from? Not from the RINO establishment. It backed Charlie “Tan-in-a-Can” Crist and fought Rubio tooth and nail. It was the Tea Party and Constitutional Conservative movement that gave birth to Rubio, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, etc.
There are flawed candidates, to be sure, among those backed by the conservative wing of the Republican Party. RINOs point to Sharon Angle and Richard Mourdock, for example, forgetting that no one wins 100 percent of their slate. Until the afternoon of election day, when the unions started busing in voters from places unknown, Angle was in fact leading Harry Reid handily.
And one inappropriate and/or misconstrued remark by Mourdock (and a crackpot third-party candidate) helped cook his campaign.
It’s not the conservatives who need to go away. It’s the RINO establishment that should make themselves scarce. Once again, a mushy centrist — who supposedly would appeal to wide swaths of the electorate — lost in a race that should have been a slamdunk.
And in this existential showdown between liberty and tyranny, Mitt Romney could not even attract the same number of voters as... John McCain. Constitutional conservatives, Tea Party conservatives, and fiscal conservatives don’t need to retreat. The RINO country club set needs to cede control to the true heart of the party. And if they refuse to cede power we will defeat them as we have time and time again.”
Link: http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2012/11/deja-vu-all-over-again-another-cant.html
And on a side note I believe that is was the Obama machine that eliminated Bachman, Cain and Gingrich during the Rep. primaries. Why? because bachman threated the woman demorat voting block, Cain threatened the demorat black voting block and Gingrich, despite his flaws, would go for Obama’s juglar vein and not run a soft junk campaign like Romney.
How has Akin morphed into “THE TEA PARTY CANDIDATE”?
“Missouri, a bastion of the tea-party movement, has been shifting right in recent elections. The Tea Party Express and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin endorsed former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman in the GOP primary. Self-financing businessman John Brunner had the backing of FreedomWorks, a national tea party umbrella group.”