Your thesis is incorrect. I don’t know what else to say to you.
Short of a time machine I don’t know what you can do. If you want to WIN and don’t want Romney.
End of the day you have to decide, which do you think is worse, President Romney or 4 more years of Obama. HOnestly we’ve passed the Rubicon in terms of Santorum or Gingrich being the nominee. Short of course something bad happening to Romney.. Killed in a plain crash or something coming out about him that would completely destroy him politically, which is not likely to happen.
Reality is the “tea party bloc” which is what I will call them for lack of a better term, engaged in complete political idiocy with the people they backed early in the process. Bachmann was a bitter shrew... Cain was an abject joke.. Perry I’ll give some leeway on that one, he at least deserved a little look and see... sadly that one didn’t work out. Had they coalesqued around Santorum earlier, maybe he would already have started some grooming by elders to make him stop shooting himself in the foot with his mouth... or around Gingrich in those earlier days things might have been different.
At this point we have 1/3 of the delegates done, and while is clear that part of the party loyal, like most on FR don’t like Romney and would prefer someone else, that group while vocal is not strong enough to pick a candidate, at least not in a 3+ person race. The “conservative” base has been split from almost day one on the primary season, and I personally think Gingrich made a huge blunder when he focused on responding to Romney’s attacks at the peak of his surge, which were absolutely over the top, and not on taking out Santorum to end the vote splitting that has continued. That misstep ensured the continued split of the non romney vote, and guaranteed Romney a primary win, even if it wasn’t the one he had in mind back when this all started.
At some point, pragmatic strategy must kick in, and that means best we can hope for if we want to win the election and get rid of Obama is begin to consider how we can influence Romney to capitulate to conservative principles on certain things... let him know his support is not guaranteed and he must make some sort of offering and guarantees. Other than this, I don’t know what we can do.
One way to do this is to ensure “true conservatives” win Congressional and Senate elections where possible, so that the bloc will speak up and challenge his administration when they try to do something stupid etc.
It was naive of the tea party to think that in a few years they would be able to mandate a presidential candidate. They really need to focus on local and congressional elections and groom people for the presidential cycle 4-8 years out. You ensure these folks win, and you build up the pool for the future elections, and that’s something that just hasn’t been done.
I still plan on voting for Gingrich when my states primary happens, and would love to see an huge swell push him over Romney,but pragmatic reality is, I know this is not likely to happen.
However given a choice between Romney or Santorum, as much as I hate Romney, I have to say, if that’s the choice I will hold my nose and vote Romney, because frankly like it or not, and as much as it turns my stomach that Romney may be the nominee with an R beside his name, he at least has a path to victory. I see no calculus where Santorum wins if he is the nominee.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, I prefer Gingrich, he makes the election a true ideological one, and the US Electorate when given it flat out will choose overwhelmingly the conservative ideology. None of the other candidates will or can do that, they just wont. However, the idea that he will groundswell enough to overtake Romney is remote at best, and certainly not going to happen as long as Santorum is in the race.
Support your candidate, but remember, at the end of the day, if your guy could not win a general election, you are handing your opponent a victory, its a very simple calculus.