About 36 percent of the public refers to themselves as conservatives. About a 44 percent call them selves moderates and about 20 percent call themselves liberals.
The problem for any president is get to 51 percent of the votes in congress. It is senseless to propose things that have zero chance of getting 51 percent approval.
The conservatives expect to elect someone and then have that person somehow enact the conservative agenda. The problem is 36 percent is not 51. A president can only do what he can get 51 percent of the people to support.
In fact under our system it is next to impossible to elect anyone who will ignore the majority and do what he thinks is right. Such a President would be impeached and forced to resign.
But a Republican president has a much harder task. The media will try to convince the voters to impeach him and force him to resign. So no Republican president can successfully reject the majority view on any subject and long survive.
Conservatives and most of their pundits are just ignorant of how our system works. They think the man we vote for and help elect will do what we want done. That will NEVER HAPPEN until a majority of voters are conservative.
Many Conservatives are really totalitarians. They want a leader that will reject majority rule and do what THEY think is best. Under our system of government that cannot happen. Any president who tries it will find strong opposition in both the opposing party and his own party.
When Roosevelt tried to take the supreme court liberal by packing the court, he was rejected by Democrats as well as Republicans. When the Viet Nam war became unpopular enough Nixon was rejected by both Democrats and Republicans.
Since then no president has rejected what a majority of voters wanted. Reagan let the congress nearly triple the national debt and double government spending. He did not lift a finger to stop it. Reagan never tried to cut government spending.. he only asked that the rate of increase in spending be reduced. The national debt and government spending grew by leaps and bounds under Reagan. It is pretty simple. A majority of voters did not want cuts and Reagan did not do anything to cut spending. Reagan as many others have done.. talked a good game but did nothing. Like all smart politicians he recognized that this a Nation whose government is of, for and by the people.
Until the Conservatives understand that the only road to success is changing voters minds, they will face a constant and total disappointment in all politicians. It is funny. The right really trashed Reagan during his term in office for the same issues they are trashing Bush.
Twenty years from now they will be praising Bush as they now do Reagan, and trashing a new Republican president for not being like Bush and Reagan.. when in fact he will be exactly like Bush and Reagan
Oh, please. They are busily ignoring what a huge majority of the country wants, and refusing to enforce the immigration laws.