“Next time a real conservative. If that real conservative loses, time to think about splitting up the country to avoid living in a socialist pesthole.”
What makes you think a conservative has a prayer with the electorate at large? This election was between a radical socialist and a liberal. The people chose the radical socialist. This isn’t a problem with packaging or the ideology of the candidate. It’s much more stark than that.
It’s not the same country it was when Reagan was re-elected in 1984. The demographics have shifted beyond our control, and it will only get worse.
People are only going to wake up and realize it after it is too late.
yeah, things are bad. A very large percentage of Americans are takers instead of producers. Romney failed to differentiate himself from Obama. He was not an ideologue. He was a nice guy who thought people would vote for him because he was a nice guy. We have to have a conservative candidate who can try to educate the electorate and illustrate why the Dem Party and socialism are evil. I’m not saying it’s assured that candidate will win. But we ran a moderate Pubbie who should have stomped a walking disaster like Obama. He lost. In four years if we lose with a genuine conservative, it’s time to talk about splitting up the country.
You’re falling to a common election fallacy, that the same people show up to vote at each election. How ‘moderates’ and independents vote largely depends on which subset of the group is motivated to get out and vote. That means flashing a bright enough beacon from the part of the political spectrum that they lean toward to get them swept up in your movement. It doesn’t mean plotting the perfect mean between the bookended main masses of voters.
Likewise, what Obama’s campaign understood, and Romney’s MA-based political braintrust didn’t, is that you win by getting large numbers of your base motivated to get out and vote.
The Romney team ran him just as they did in MA, which as a managerial leader, rather than a leader of a political philosophy. That meant Romney had almost reverse coattails in MA—and an every shrinking GOP representation in the legislature—while it meant that what should have been a strong senatorial year for the GOP was a significant retreat in numbers for the incoming senate: another big boost to Obama.
Instead of engaging on philosophy, Romney ran on a condescending list of promises: ‘12 million more jobs, more take-home pay’.
He effectively took Obamacare off the table as an issue, by stubbornly promoting the wisdom of Romneycare.
He played it so safe in the last debate that he also took Benghazi—and exposure of Obama’s gunrunning to the enemy—off the table as well.
Romney didn’t lose by way of reckless gaffe, but by being all too cautious and almost apologetic for whatever shred of conservative ideology he didn’t abandon.