He makes good points. Romney’s post-election musings seem to indicate that he doesn’t really believe in the power of free market capitalism and traditional values to pull people out of poverty and government dependence. If you don’t really believe in the conservatism and the Republican platform, can you please step aside and make room for a leader who does?
This was clear from way before he got the nomination. Remember his statement that he'd index the minimum wage to inflation during the primary? Romney's not a free market guy.
At the same time I don't agree with Republicans or conservatives dismissing the argument that people who are net tax RECEIVERS are likely to vote for Obama and the Democrats. Many people will vote on their short-term self interest. The fact that Obama has been trying to radically expand the food stamp program and other welfare benefits and market them aggressively to more people should tell you that. He wouldn't be doing it if it didn't benefit him politically.
Stopping the expansion of these welfare programs should remain a high priority for conservatives. And we have to do all we can to explain why our policies are economically better for everyone in the long-term. But there's only so much we'll be able to do to combat human nature and its tendency to favor short-term benefits over long-term. Which means we need to do everything we can to stop the expansion of the welfare state even if it damages us in the short-term. Caving in on it is pointless, because as Laura Ingraham smartly points out, it would just launch a bidding war with the Democrats, who would offer bigger and better welfare benefits than us every time.
If you don’t really believe in the conservatism and the Republican platform, can you please step aside and make room for a leader who does?
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But...but...but...it was Romney’s TURN!!
That is the biggest problem in the GOP and Romney ran with the attitude of ‘I’m not the other guy’ and expected the GOP base to just roll over and many did. He was partly right in that.