So you’d agree those voters aren’t conservatives, right? Seems to me that if you’re really committed to advancing conservatism you will vote for whoever you need to to do that. Case in point? I actually don’t like DJT very much as a person and would prefer that he not run again. I voted for him over Cruz in Indiana’s primary back in 2016 because I wanted to get the damn thing over with so we could start consolidating our forces against Hilary and of course I voted for him in November. I voted for him more enthusiastically in 2020 and will vote for him for a fourth time in 2024 if he wins the nomination in order to prevent a catastrophic second term for Biden.
These Alaskan voters aren’t conservatives. In general, far too many of “our voters” hate other Republicans more than they fear the Democrats who are destroying the country right before their eyes. The Democrats don’t have that problem with their people. They tell them to jump and those f***ers always say “how high?”.
It took them many years to get to that point where the extreme left wing of the Party finally managed to kick out the more centrist aspects.
Yes. But we have to understand that not everyone in a winning coalition is going to be a base Conservative.
Base Conservatives probably make up less than a third of the country. Another third are communists. It’s that mushy middle that we have to pull to our side.
That’s just the breaks. Reagan recognized that. That’s why he built an unassailable political coalition that held until 1992.
Trying to win with only your base is a recipe for disaster.
The people who aren’t in the base will vote for a Begich, who has the exact same policies as Palin, but they won’t vote for Palin.
I don’t like it, but that’s reality. If we want to stop the Democrats, we need to recognize it, and then push electable proven Conservatives who can appeal to a wide base.
DeSantis is a good model for how it works.
I’d say we have to be realistic. “The most conservative candidate that can get elected” still seems like the right choice to me. Wishing there weren’t squishy RINO voters won’t make them go away, and won’t make them vote more conservative.