Posted on 06/03/2011 9:46:39 AM PDT by Hawk720
Gov. Haley Barbour issued a warning to social conservatives in choosing their Republican nominee for 2012: “Purity is the enemy of victory.”
“Remember purity in politics, purity is the enemy of victory,” Barbour said. “We can’t start out with the idea out as the Faith & Freedom Coalition that our candidate’s got to agree with me on every single thing. We cannot expect our candidate to be pure. Winning is about unity. Winning is about us sticking together to achieve the main thing.”
“Conservatives, religious people, small government people, we are not going to have purity. We’re not going to have a perfect candidate,” Barbour said. “There’s only been one perfect person that ever walked on this earth. And there ain’t gonna be another one in this election.”
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.abcnews.com ...
Establishment GOP hacks like to deliberately conflate the desire for a consistent conservative with a demand for absolute perfection & 100% agreement.
As for electability, the Dems seemed to have done okay despite nominating a far-left extremist Marxist in the last election.
Thanks for the strawman fallacy Barbour.
Most of us want a strong constitutionalist (a.k.a common sense) candidate. Most of us don't expect to see a perfect candidate. Most of us don't want a candidate who fears the LSM and who talks and votes like a stinkin' RINO.
People like Romney who have been involved in politics advocating policies of partial accommodation to failed policies of the Liberals which rely on expropriating assets from creators and producers to give to unproductive elements of our society tend to continue to rely on those political policies when they get elected.
I heard him last night on Hannity attempting to explain his way around some of his bad policy proposals as Governor and I didn't even hear him ever say these policies are wrong because they involve counter productive economic incentives that tend to weaken rather than strengthen our Democracy and our economy.
Today, we stand here advocating real change that will make a difference in our deteriorating economic conditions and return to our system of Constitutional government from policies that invade our personal liberty.
Romney can't bring himself to say that policies that contravene our fundamental principles are simply wrong. Frankly I am not sure he is smart enough to know that. He is just another guy who has bought his way into the establishment with position and wealth initially established by an effective father. My experience in life with people like Romney is that they don't really understand the difference and cannot be relied on with respect to counter establishment policies that involve true dissent.
So yes, I am for pretty much purity--even if it involves candidates like Palin, Cain, and Bachmann who don't come from establishment backgrounds with establishment credentials.
TQC warns fiscal libertarians: “Purity is the enemy.”
There is truth. Who can bear to hear it?
Tell that to the legions of nitpickers who attack Pawlenty, Palin, and even Herman Cain.
Barbour is exactly right: Ronald Reagan isn't walking through that door, and even the Gipper wasn't perfect.
Considering the quality of people involved with state & national politics, I'm willing to live with anyone halfway decent.
I agree! They need to vote for Palin and be done with the RINOS.
I presume he’s pushing Romney?
Romney’s (lack of) social credentials are a small part of the problem...you have Romneycare as another big issue...he’s not that conservative fiscally OR socially.
“Where’s it written we want “purity”? We want the most qualified conservative candidate.”
That’s purity. You are either consercvative or you are not. We don’t have a middle ground. For lack of that candidate(Palin, Bachmann, Cain) you wind up with Romney.
The difference is conservatives are proud to be conservatives. Liberals have to lie about not being liberals.
I’m surprised Barbour is stupid enough to take the bait and join in this “purity” debate. Its a lose-lose debate because he isn’t persuading anyone to change and its just more grist for the MSM propaganda mill to show how radical those nasty Christian conservatives are.
As other posters point out, the issue isn’t voting against every single candidate because they aren’t pure. If that were the case, Reagan wouldn’t have gotten elected. Its finding the best combination. One issue voters are rare. The problem is that conservatives have been burned so many times.
As an example, I can’t stress enough what a huge disappointment Lyndon Baines Bush was on economic issues. He did real damage to the conservative coalition with his big spending, amnesty and entitlement expansion, even if he was right on social issues and forgeign policy / war. Yet when people pointed that out, they were attacked (many times here) for being disloyal to Bush.
I almost put DeMint in there but didn’t for the sake of brevity.
“Winning is about us sticking together to achieve the main thing,and the main thing is getting me re-elected.”
Since Palin emerged in 2008, we continue to learn just how well structured towards liberalism, that the GOP has been all of our lives.
It’s far easier to be socially conservative and fiscally liberal as a politician than the other way around, despite the fact that for me, fiscal issues are more important at this juncture.
Nothing Barbour said contradicts Priebus, or anyone in the Base with any amount of pragmatism or common sense.
The headline, by the way, is not reflected in Barbour's comments.
Well, I definitely want to win so I'll be voting for the most corrupt candidate on the ticket. Gosh, this was so simple, why didn't I think of it.
My rule of thumb.
If I agree with a candidate on 100% of the issues 100% of the time, either I’m lying to myself or the candidate is lying to me.
Yeah Haley ,BTW What is your Immigration Stance??
Your right Haley ,the only purity allowed is Left wingers, marxists and communists.
Can’t fly the Flag,mention God,offend Homos,illegal aliens,tax cheats,government union workers.
The only people that have to shut up and take it are the TAX PAYERS and GOD fearing AMERICANS!
Thanks Haley winning elections with your abvice has sure paid off
I am as conservative as anyone here, but Haley is correct.
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