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We all stayed home? All of us?

Not all--but more than enough to make the price of your vote too high for anyone to pay, especially when coupled with a very weak track record of loyalty.

You don't need or want any of our votes?

Not at the price that's being asked.

Right now, GOP election calculus reads that getting votes from the "true conservatives" costs more votes from less-than-true conservatives than the "true conservatives" deliver.

Start delivering more votes than you cost elsewhere, and do so consistently and reliably, and you're liable to get listened to a lot more.

Execute a third-party tantrum over every slight, real and imagined...and watch the GOP go court someone else's vote, because you're telling them that you cannot be relied on in any way, shape, or form.

Right now, GOP election calculus reads that getting votes from the "true conservatives" costs more votes from less-than-true conservatives than the "true conservatives" deliver.

Which of course explains Bush's dive in the polls.

You are right about one thing though; I believe an impasse between Conservatives and Bush & Co. has been reached and neither side is going to give in (we certainly know George won't). Many conservatives have come to the conclusion that Bush's Open Borders/pro-Big Government brand of politics is little differentiated with the Democrat’s Agenda. Meanwhile, it’s quite clear that Bush decided a long time ago to write off a good part of the conservative vote in the hopes of attracting more left-center votes. Things have indeed come to a head in this election year.

This is truly a intra-party fight and the pots and pans are flying so to speak.

Just the kind of happy party unity that George needs to beat a committed Democratic Party effort to unseat him at all costs.

Should be interesting.

"Execute a third-party tantrum over every slight, real and imagined...and watch the GOP go court someone else's vote, because you're telling them that you cannot be relied on in any way, shape, or form."

Let it happen. I'm ready.

Execute a third-party tantrum over every slight, real and imagined...and watch the GOP go court someone else's vote, because you're telling them that you cannot be relied on in any way, shape, or form.

This is not for people who like short slogans and sound bites, but there is a fascinating and very insightful article from a Dean supporter here. It's kind of a post-mortem, and it concerns how the Deaniacs (including Dean himself) managed to con themselves into thinking they had actual popular support... when what they were really experiencing was their own noise bouncing around in an echo chamber on the Internet.

I recommend this article to all thinking Freepers, because we here on FR are vulnerable to making the same mistakes. We had our very own on-line echo chamber long before anyone ever heard of Howard Dean. And if we're honest about it, we'll admit that we have had our own little 'Deaniac' episodes along the way.

One of the things I try to keep in perspective is that, to the extent that I fit in here, I am a 95^th percentile right-wing nut. Anyone who ran for office using my positions, on my hot-button issues, would go down in flames in all but a handful of Congressional districts. The minute I forget that, I have lost touch with reality.

I have seen numerous posts on this thread so far alleging widespread dissatisfaction with the direction the Republican Party has been taking in recent years. Earth to Freepers: the market is signalling the Republicans that they are doing everything right. Some of us have wondered over the years whether we would ever live to see the day that Republicans would hold the White House, both houses of Congress, and a majority of the Governorships. Not only do they have that now, they increased their majorities in both houses in the last election. If I run the GOP, and you come to tell me that I'm doing it all wrong, I am going to dismiss you as a nut.

Folks, let's not fall into the Deaniac Internet Echo-Chamber trap. We are not the American electorate. We are highly vocal ring-wing nuts... the exact counterpoint to Dean's highly vocal left-wing nuts. Our advice on how to win elections is worth about as much as Howard Dean's is right now. And that's especially true for guys who have gone from being in the wilderness for 40 years, to owning the Democrats.

That's not to say that the GOP can't screw things up. Nothing is forever. But let's be cool about this and recognize that we are not the guys anyone is going to come to for advice on what to do next. Boo and hiss at Karl Rove all you want, but Bush is President and his party gained seats in both houses during an off-year election... not an easy or common thing to pull off. There is no objective fact for Bush to look at that doesn't tell him that Karl Rove is very good at what he does.

One of the things that many people have speculated about is whether the Deaniacs will accept reality, or whether they will go off in a snit... and come November, either write in Howard, or vote for Ralph Nader, or stay home altogether. People wonder about that because the Deaniacs are widely perceived to be a bunch of immature moonbeamers.

I hope we can do better than that.

*You don't need or want any of our votes?

**Not at the price that's being asked.

A natural-born coalition builder, yessir.
You're bent on playing king of the fort while there's an election going on around you.