[Consort]

Your analysis is laughable.

What, exactly, is incorrect in my post?

[Pelham]

"A base of convenience".
Conservatives have a better history of voting 'for the good of the party' when their candidate loses the primary, than do the GOP's liberals and moderates- who have a long record of attacking candidates to their right and refusing to support them in general elections. Goldwater and Reagan both received this treatment on several occasions, as have less well known candidates, like Hershchensohn in California. Lee Edwards' book is a good history of the relationship between the GOP and its conservative members.

I agree with you that it is possible to get conservatives to stay home, but the GOP has had to work at alienating them to make that happen. Bush the Elder signed five bills that would have made a Democrat proud, not just the tax hike. Dubya would keep conservatives in his camp if he'd stop poking them in the eye.