Can you tell me what percentage of votes Pat Buchanan, Alan Keyes, and the other "true conservatives" received in the 2000 primaries? (i.e., what chance do you have of getting "a substantial number of votes" in protest?)
Amelia wrote:You would have to include George W. Bush in the conservative ranks in 2000, and that means there were a whole lot of votes cast for conservatives.
Can you tell me what percentage of votes Pat Buchanan, Alan Keyes, and the other "true conservatives" received in the 2000 primaries
Remember, George W. Bush ran as a conservative and promised to advance parts of the conservative agenda. After being elected, he signed a CFR law that he promised to veto if it had certain provisions in it (and it still had those provisions in it when he signed it). He also let Ted Kennedy write the "No Child Left Behind" Education bill.
Then, we conservatives were told that we couldn't expect the conservative agenda to be advanced because Dems controlled the Senate. So, in 2002, conservatives turned out in large numbers and the Senate was turned over to Republican leadership. In return, we got farm subsidies and a huge Medicare entitlement so that our grandchildren can buy pills for Bill Gates when he gets older.
Now, the Bush campaign wants us to believe that if we re-elect Bush, he'll be a conservative in 2005-2008, but he can't be conservative now because he needs to get re-elected. Well, I'll probably hold my nose and vote for Bush this year because the alternatives are just too scary to consider.
I do think that we need to register some sort of protest. And the Republican party needs to decide if it wants to be truly conservative, or if it wants to be the Socialist-lite party. And if the Republican's don't want to be conservative, then there should be a truly conservative party to challenge them. This is especially true if the Democrats continue to marginalize themselves (and Whig out as might happen). That might provide an opportunity to shift things to a two party system where the current Republican party (most of it anyway) is the liberal/socialist choice, and a new conservative party (Constitution Party?) provides the balance and challenge from the right.
If conservatives don't come up with some plan of action, we will become the blacks of the republican party. Always counted on for 90% plus turnout, and never getting anything of consequence for those votes.