If the GOP was an actual opposition party, I'd be certain to vote next year. But, because they are not, I lean toward sitting out national elections.
It's time to shift most of our efforts to our state assemblymen and senators. If our republic survives, if reform is to happen, it will come from the states and not the DC denizens of both parties who profit so well from the system they corrupted.
I did vote for Romney but I’m sorry I did. The stories about Romney not really wanting to run, plus his weak campaign, suggest he and McCain were puppets set up to take the fall in order to ensure an Obama victory. McCain’s behavior since his loss, continually undermining conservative policies and advancing the progressive agenda, is another piece of evidence the GOP is neither conservative or a true opposition party. Add the behavior of Chris Christie, Lindsay Graham, John Boehner, and others in leadership roles and it is clear the GOP is at best a statist socialist party and at worst a token opposition party controlled by the Marxists progressives.
At age 18 I proudly rode a bicycle several miles to the courthouse to register to vote, as a Republican. Since Ronald Reagan left office the GOP has consistently offered weak candidates for the office of President who run as conservatives but in truth support the policies of the globalist socialist agenda. I include both Bush’s in that statement. After Romney’s pitiful performance I thought long and hard about my support for the Republican Party.
In business one learns to evaluate companies, programs, and people. When they aren’t performing the indicated action is to cut, close, fire or eliminate. I realized my loyalty to the Republican Party for years had been based not on performance but on it being “least bad”. Assessing the party objectively it has deserved an “F” grade for nearly three decades. Each time it has held all three branches of government it has failed to even attempt to roll back the progressive state, much less govern wisely. After 40 years as a Republican I happily changed my registration to “unaffiliated” this year believing neither national party supports liberty so neither is deserving of my affiliation.
If the millions of conservative voters who form the core of the party could be persuaded to change their registration to unaffiliated in a short window of time I believe we would see a major restructuring of the political landscape. True conservatives, and financial backers of true conservatives, would have the incentive to form a viable third party representing historical American values and traditions. The Republican Party leadership could stop pretending to be conservative and openly position themselves as the corporate center/left party. The Democrats could openly proclaim themselves the socialist party (they’ve almost done that anyway). The new conservative party would represent the interests of the 35% of the public that is truly conservative and be free to fight to win and govern without compromise (same as the leftist Democrats do today).
Third parties have historically failed in the USA because they represented small constituencies. Today the Republican Party has rejected its conservative base, much like the Democrat Party rejected conservatives in the 1960’s. There are at least as many hard core conservatives in this country as hard core leftists. If the Democrat Party can be viable by advancing the socialist agenda of 35% of the country, a new third party should be equally or more successful advancing the agenda of 35% of the country.
If the message is pure, and the execution while in office is not corrupted, conservatism can win.