THere is really only one lesson to be learned for conservatives.
Quit being the battered, abused wife of the GOP ELite.
Put your foot down, both in the Primaries and the General Election and say no when they put up a candidate who is diametrically opposed to your principles as Romney was for any complete conservative.
By complete conservative, I mean a Social, Fiscal, and Defense/Military conservative.
Romney utterly failed on two of those, Social and Fiscal conservatism.
If we don’t force the GOP to listen to us, the GOP will ultimately go the way of the Whigs.
“Romney utterly failed on two of those, Social and Fiscal conservatism.”
Even if that is the case, defense more than makes up for it. We will soon have no nuclear weapons and utterly defenseless in the face of Iran, China and North Korea. It will get really scary soon and there’s nothing Congress, the states or the tea party can do about it.
It has gone the way of the Whigs, the Neo-Con’s are not going to allow a real Conservative to run again for President.