Elk, there are two reasons I am hesitant to cross swords with you. The first is my inherent and well known non-confrontational and gentle nature and second, they you have a wealth of actual experience dealing with these matters.
But I’m going to do it anyway.
The time to deal with and discount any pol is the nanosecond they hit ones personal threshold for BS. I think we agree that actions, not words are what matter and some actions are so abhorrent to the idea of conservatism that an automatic DQ is applied.
Memories are funny things. We paint some with vivid colors and they always look shiny and new in the theater of the mind. Others we compartmentalize and bury so deep that Agent K and his neurolyzer could be put out of a job.
Rand Paul spent several weeks siding with every piece of leftist verbage and policy that fell within the time frame. During that period, FR was awash with people rightly commenting in that leftism and vows were made.
I was one of the people who correctly pointed out that those vows, as always, would be discarded as soon as “The Fear” staged it’s inevitable return. This feat of Prophecy is akin to predicting the sun’s rise in the east, but with every Paul, every Romney, every one of these leftist idiots, the sheep always run to the salvation du’jour, no matter what. Because it’s a lesser evil.
Paul happens to be right on a very narrow scope of issues. And very very wrong on many more. His actions of pushing the wrong, siding with and protecting GOP misleadership and backing profoundly liberal ideas is what DQs him not only today, but pretty much weekly since his election. Many had high hopes for him. Many claimed that he was his own man, not Ron Jr. Many say that in America everyone is their own man and the sins of the father and blah blah blah ad infinitium.
Rand id Ron in youngface. The sins of the father are his own since he adopted most of them. His actions speak louder than his words and those actions DQ him from consideration.
If that standard applied across the board adds up to Hillary, then the fault lies in our mewling acceptance of liberals in our own ranks that work tirelessly to enshrine one liberal savior after another in the Cooperstown of right wing politics.
The solution is as it always has been. Stop fawning over and electing liberals calling themselves conservative or even Republican when their actions mark them as leftist garbage.
We saw it throughout the past 3 election cycles and it is worse than ever this one especially with the circus of Trump.
Get them out early and often. Support actual conservatives early and always.
Neither you nor I nor RitaOK, nor Finny, nor Dr. Sivana. nor Eternal Vigilance nor an increasing number of other fine folks here EVER succumbed to "the Fear." I trust we never will. Our consciences are clear.
I am only saying that we should recognize good qualities in the various candidates and try to cobble together the best qualities among them and leave the rest behind. There will be time after Christmas to winnow the survivors.
Every once in a while, we should indulge a pleasant disposition.