In some ways you are making my point. I think that the dedicated conservative of the right, and the rabid-most leftists of the left don’t pick the winner. It is the voters in between or those less motivated that do become motivated.
Much of this thread consists of argument of the question as to whether a truly informed conservative should not vote for a squish Rino that wins a particular primary during the General Election. If I lived in Thad Cochrane’s state I would be sleepless making that decision. I once lived in Kansas and I would have no trouble whatsoever voting for Roberts in the General Election because I have seen his voting record over many years. I was truly unimpressed by Wolfe who ran a smear campaign which did not appear to promote the conservative agenda and place it in front of the voters. He simply took the “tea party” mantle and wrapped himself in it by association only.
I think we need to motivate our base in general and we need to capture the middle like Reagan did and as other local strong conservatives have done in the past.
Over the years I have watched the third party efforts and the Ron Paul / Ross Perot idiot candidacies and seen it as something that allows the left to win.
OK
But the voting reality is:
Bush 2004(reelection): 62 million votes (50.7%)
Romney 2012: 61 million votes (47.2%)
McCain 2008: 60 million votes (45.7%)
Indications are that conservatives declining to vote for a liberal Republican don’t really make a difference unless they vote for a noticeably popular third-party candidate.