For years, conservatives were told by the GOP that if you want to have conservative GOP candidates in the general elections, then you need to work for your guy to win in the primary. If that doesn't happen, you need to support the RINO in the general.
And conservatives largely did that for many a year.
Fast forward to 2010. Something the GOP-E never envisioned happened - the great unwashed actually DID get a lot of their conservative candidates elected in the primary. And defeated a lot of prime RINO in the process.
So did the GOP-E follow their own advice?
No. They went on TV and did everyting they could to backstab the Tea Party winners. And Lord knows what they did behind the scenes, I am sure it was not pretty.
Now we saw Mitt Romney utterly destroy his opposition with lowbrow, unpricipled ad attacks. Scorched earth is no way to win a primary if you want to win the general. But apparently the GOP-E would rather have their RINO even if it means they have effectively trashed their chances in November. Many days I think they are more scared of conservatives than they are of Democrats.
This is the landscape we see now on FR - the scorched earth has extended here, and that changes things. It's not pretty. I have no idea what will become of FR, conservativism or the GOP. But we didn't start this fire. We're just dealing with the aftermath. And there are no guides for such, we're just going to have to muddle through it the best we can. But IMO, tossing your principles aside is NOT the first step.
Good post....FR is not going to avoid the division in our country...and take a stand it should. Those who want to ride the fence will topple one side or the other, just a matter of how much they feel the impact.
Hope reined in Obamas campaign....now we see there was no hope for the changes thought. Some Freepers are doing likewise with supporting Romney with their vote....hoping he might be different....he won’t be....he’ll just present a prettier picture under the deception he is well known for.
We live in weird times...uncertainty every day abound. That is not going to change by voting for Romney....the mask he wears now will be over our entire governance and we’ll not know the outcome til it hits people in the face...and it will be too late.