It is sad that the Republicans can only produce Romney as their candidate. As has been said repeatedly he is nothing but “Obama lite!” For some reason conservatives cannot resonate with voters. I think a large part of such failure is the massive demographic shift brought about by flooding the country with “Third Worlders.” The liberals have won again and have insured themselves perpetual power.
“For some reason conservatives cannot resonate with voters.”
Because so many get into some tightly pigeonholed ‘orthodoxy’ of what they perceive as the one, true conservatism. There really are different conservative camps, driven by different imperatives most of which are subjective and cultural. Not all by any means, but mostly. Economic, religious (and there is a hydra to be sure), social, regional, ethnic and on and on. So we start off fractured.
We also tend to aggravate the problem by driving off people who could be and should be potential political allies. Not brothers, not comrades, but allies. I am speaking here of libertarians. Some are so far off the charts they cannot be worked with, but many would agree on most of our principles of small, limited government with specific and narrow functions, and otherwise to get out of our lives. The Reagan Democrats would be another example, and a fair portion of the PUMAs were in that camp.
Culturally, I am about as conservative as Stonewall Jackson. Politically I am much more libertarian. Leave me alone to live my life as I see fit, and I will return the favor. Our laws and restrictions should be very few, and for very clear and objective reasons, and firm. Except for control freaks and submissives, EVERYONE wants that.
Accord is made harder than it should be, as the powers that be (the vile and venal political parties we are shackled with) thrive on keeping people divided, factionalized and mutually suspicious or downright hostile. As the old joke says, one lawyer in a small town will starve to death, but two make a pretty good living. As with lawyers, so with these degenerated political parties which oppress us all.
First, Romney's the 'establishment' candidate for a few reasons, most of which is that he's spent 8 years cultivating support from within the establishment, trading support then for support now. He's worked the system, and become the anointed one not for his political views, but as payback in the buddy system.
Next, he is not Obama lite. Obama is 'Present' in the White House - he hates work, hates working with people, and would much rather spend another billion of our dollars on another massive junket to another nation than spend a day working to forward his agenda. Vs Romney who 'loves mandates' - that's not a quote from some private meeting or a speech to some liberals, that's a quote from the 2008 Republican Presidential Debates.
Worse, Romney's team, if they get the White House, will work to exclude anyone who worked against Romney (IE: Any conservative) from any support from the national party. Defunding of campaigns, support of 'moderate' candidates in close races, etc.
Romney is everything we fear from an Obama who actually works.
The Tea Party proved that assumption wrong in 2010 but if you are talking only about presidential politics it is hard to tell if that is currently true since we haven't had a real conservative win the GOP nomination since Ronald Reagan.
Now HE certainly resonated with the voters.