Posted on 10/22/2014 2:21:52 AM PDT by servo1969
The Republican Party simply doesn't get it.
A new poll this week shows 2012 presidential nominee and 2008 primary candidate Mitt Romney leading the field of potential 2016 Republican candidates. According to ABC News/Washington Post, 21 percent of Republican voters would vote for Romney in the primaries; Jeb Bush and Mike Huckabee tie at 10 percent, followed by Rand Paul, Chris Christie and Paul Ryan. Altogether, some 44 percent of Republican primary voters want an "establishment" candidate -- by which we mean a candidate for whom social issues are secondary, immigration reform is primary and economics dominates.
The establishment donors on the coasts see this poll and believe that a consolidated funding effort mobilized behind the Chosen One (Romney, Bush, Christie or Ryan) could avoid a messy primary and keep the powder dry for a 2016 showdown with Hillary.
The conservative base knows this, and they groan.
That's because the conservative base understands that what motivates them is not the marginal tax rate -- nobody in the country knows, offhand, his or her effective tax rate -- but values. And none of the top priorities for Republican donors match the fire-in-the-belly issues that motivate the folks who knock on doors, phone bank and provide the under-$50 donations that could power a Republican to victory.
The divide between the establishment and the base represents a divide between the wallet and the working man, the penthouse and the pews, the Ivy Leagues and the homeschools. Which is why Republican leadership quietly assures its top donors that should Republicans win the Senate, their first legislative push will encompass corporate tax reform and immigration reform. They will not push primarily for border security, or for protection of religious freedom, or for repeal of Common Core. They will not use their opportunity to govern as an opportunity to draw contrast between conservatism and leftism. Instead, they will seek "common ground" in a vain attempt to show the American people that efficiency deserves re-election.
And the American people will go to sleep, conservatives will vomit in their mouths, and leftists will demonize Republicans all the same.
Conservatives understand that politics simply reflect underlying values. That's why they are passionate. They don't vote their pocketbooks. They vote their guts, and their guts tell them that leftism is immoral on the most basic level.
Republicans, on the other hand, believe that politics are just business by other means. That means that Republicans think Americans, left and right, share the same underlying values. That's a lie, and it's a self-defeating lie at that.
Until Republicans begin to appreciate the moral conflict between right and left, they will dishearten the right and provide easy targets for the left. The nominee won't matter; elections won't matter. And the alienation of the American conservative will deepen and broaden, until, one day, it bursts forth with a renewed fire that consumes the Republican Party whole.
Rank-and-file Republican sycophants will assuredly line up to vote for them filled with Pollyannaisms that things will change with the GOP at the helm.
So what are we going to do about it? Are we just going to sit around and complain about the establishment? We did that back in 2012 and ended up with Romney. Personally, I think Romney’s supposed candidacy is a smokescreen for another candidate. The media will clamor around Mitt. He’ll go around the country setting up potential donors and then he’ll announce he’s not running. All the money and organization that Mitt put in place will be given to an establishment Republican. Myself, I think it’s Paul Ryan, the “fake” conservative.
If you see him mount a campaign for governor of Wisconsin you might see that as a stepping-stone to a presidential bid, but not now.
I’m beyond ready for an alternative to the GOP.
While I still vote majority Republican, the days of my voting straight ticket are behind me.
People here will screech about it but I’m done with having Republicans rub my nose in poo until election time rolls around then expecting my vote.
Nope nope nope.
President Hillary....
Ben hasn’t quite got it right either. It’s not just border security or religious freedom. Two huge issues that both are off on are 1) stopping and reversing illegal immigration altogether, and 2) repealing Obamacare altogether.
Add in 3) energy independence and you’ve got a rational big three to go after. Some specific additional tax, spending and regulatory rollbacks (e.g., removing incentives for common core) could round out a top five.
The big theme is conservatism, Constitutional freedom, and a more limited role for government.
Ted C. is the only prospective candidate who aligns with this, though he’s short on the ideal, happy warrior, disposition.
Romney, who couldn’t beat McCain (who couldn’t beat Obama), will surely beat Hillary! after having lost to Obama!
You go, GOP!
That's 44 percent of those who will bother to show up and vote in a primary, by definition the most active of generally conservative Americans.
Which means at probably very most 25% of the country wants a truly vigorous conservative, one that would be popular here at FR.
I agree entirely with your sentiment, but to me the point is not that we run ‘centrists’, but that we have let the left define what the center is. The Democrats are anything but centrist. Obamacare is not centrist. Broad amnesty is not centrist. Sending subpoenas to church pastors demanding their sermons is not centrist. Pulling out all our troops from a war that we just spent American lives and American treasure to win - and thus letting Iraq fall into the hands of a worse set of terrorists than we ousted is not centrist. Using the IRS as a tool of coercion and suppression of the political opposition is not centrist. Letting people fly to the US from countries with Ebola outbreaks - because of some unyielding adherence to a ridiculous type of political correctness is not centrist. etc. etc.
Cruz, to me, is a centrist on most issues. Enforcing our sovereignty by having control of our borders is ‘centrist’, as just one example.
I see no sign that anything will change for 2016.
And this is the problem. Anyone who witnesses the words and increasingly fascist actions of the Demonic Party and its supporting sociopathic libtard base over the last 30 years and still believes that they share "the same underlying values", is too stupid to be in any position of power or authority.
Conservatives will go for novelty, instead of backing one person in the primaries, splitting the vote and then screaming about RINOs.
Those guys get behind one candidate early and back them to the hilt.
No matter how good the conservative canidate is, idiots will nit-pick the person to death rather than soil themselves with a real conservative that isnt 100% perfect.
Romeny has 'no fire in the belly' for politics
McClain who has proved he cant tell enemy from friend, and insists on being called a 'maverick', rather than the truth : "pre-alzhiemers".
Hitlary , who can't outrun her history of disasters, and who is in reality, Saul Alynski, or just another "community organizer" without a zampolit.
and Karl Rove , who hasn't won an election in years, except in his mind,, would rather have Repubies as Demorat-lite.
The stoopid party. They are pathetic feckless losers.
some of us were advocating and executing a general strike against the GOP in 2012 for nominating Romney and trashing the Tea Party.
Unfortunately 97% of Freepers rolled over and called us traitors.
What do you think now?
The establishment in both parties offer the same ride: Hell in a hand basket, the speed just varies.
you were wrong then and still wrong now
the solution is the GOPc that is being strengthened by the Tea Party efforts.
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