A direct result of Nixon/RINO leadership. Other than lower taxes and national defense, they stand for nothing but, "We're not as bad as the Democrats." Witness the spending under Bush.
Six short years later, Ronald Reagan not only won the election by a surprising margin but also carried the Republicans into control of the Senate and helped them pick up 33 seats in the House.
I guess conservatism sells when an honest effort to explain it is made.
Thanks to the rise of Reagan Democrats and their conversion into Republicans, by 1994 we had enough candidates and enough potential voters to be competitive for the first time since the Great Depression.
No thanks to the "moderates" who think elections are bought with advertising money.
In all his campaigns, Reagan relied on a broad movement of activist supporters who surrounded and energized the campaign far beyond the reach of the official campaign structure. It was a very different model from the modern centrally controlled consultant-dominated system, and while it was far less efficient, it was far more effective.
This is where Bill Simon Really blew the California gubernatorial election in 2002. After winning the primary on the strength of a grass roots campaign, the CAGOP took over and killed the grass roots effort over the long summer when they should have been organizing. Simon went invisible for five months and the energy in his campaign died.
The New Majority "moderates" think that money buys elections. Reagan knew that empowering the grass roots with ideas not only wins elections, it effects substantive change.
Conservatives who hope to keep that majority should think long and hard about the lessons President Reagan taught us.
"Moderates" should think long and hard about the lessons Nixon taught them too.
You can tell more untruths accidentally than a professional liar could on purpose. Simon was all over the place calling Davis names and accusing Davis of things he did not do. Simple Simon was given tons of coverage by the media from the day he announced. They knew he was a joke as a candidate and the more people saw him the fewer votes he would get.
Simple Simom thought 30 percent of the voters could cast 51 percento of the vote. Simon was the most vitriolic and obnoxious candidate in my memory. He was so unlikable an unwinable candidate beat him. Simon could not beat Gray Davis.. that says it all.
There are not enough conservatives in California to elect anyone. There are not enough conservatives in the USA to elect a president.
Bill Clinton had to be a NEW Democrat to win becuase there are not enough liberals to elect a Democrat. Republicnas have to be Compasionate Conservatives to win becuase there are not enough conservatives to win.
And as far as Dick Nixon, what part of Nixon wining the biggest popular vote victory in our history escapes you. Nixon won 61 to 38 percent in 1972. Reagan only got 58 percent in 1984. FDR never approched 61 percent. Neither did Ike or JFK. Lincoln didn't and niether did Jackson, or Wilson just to name a few.
The best presidential vote getter in history was Richard M. Nixon.
Only 34 percent of the voters are Conservative.