Are Republicans Learning the Wrong Lessons?

WEEKLY STANDARD ^ | November 28, 2012 | Jeffrey H. Anderson

[neverdem]

Yo! RNC, you need to read this!

[wolfpat]

They’re being obtuse on purpose.

[Political Junkie Too]

This presumes that Republicans are capable of learning ANY lessons.

-PJ

[Gay State Conservative]

What all of us who despise Osama Obama and his pals/worshipers must learn is this...in any given election,particularly Presidential elections,a member of one of two parties...Rat or Republican..will win.And that will be true for the rest of *our* lifetimes,at least,as it’s been true for the last 100 years or more.At the *very* worst the Republican will be the lesser of two evils and might even be a genuinely decent,responsible and respectable man/woman.The Rats learned from 2000 when Nader did,in fact,cost them the White House.They’ll never make that mistake again.The question is can *we* learn the same lesson...sometimes “principles” must give way to pragmatism...sad as that might be.

[livius]

Principles “gave way to pragmatism” all along in the last election, and where did that get us?

Why vote for a fake, de-facto Dem when you can vote for a real one? That was obviously the voter response to Romney’s failure to discuss any principles (or even issues) and try to present himself as being so close to a Dem that nobody would know the difference.

[LegendHasIt]

No, they aren't learning the wrong lessons...

.
.
.
They NEVER LEARN ANYTHING.

(sorry for shouting)

[KeyLargo]

Yep.

“More than anything, the debacle of 2012 should show the GOP that it can’t run a Seinfeldian campaign — a campaign about nothing. Chris Caldwell summed it up nicely in these pages: “Where two candidates argue over values, the public may prefer one to the other. But where only one candidate has values, he wins, whatever those values happen to be.”

[bmwcyle]

No, their souls have been purchased. They are only playing the role.

[Ken H]

...they failed to turn out their own base.

Not true.

"Evangelicals turned out in record numbers and voted as heavily for Mitt Romney yesterday as they did for George W. Bush in 2004," said Ralph Reed, chairman of Faith and Freedom Coalition. "That is an astonishing outcome that few would have predicted even a few months ago."

http://www.christianpost.com/news/survey-evangelical-voters-for-romney-overshadowed-by-youth-minorities-for-obama-84609/cpf

_____________________________________________________________

The numbers back Ralph Reed. No one will argue that Bush failed to turn out the base in 2004. Yet, Romney got several million more evangelical votes than Bush. That this happened in a declining demographic is remarkable.

[ansel12]

As a result of Romney’s failure to make the case on essentially any issue — either against Obama’s abysmal record or on behalf of his own proposals — we ended up with this very strange result

This guy is correct, the public still doesn't know who or what a Mitt Romney is, and Ryan didn't help with the general public, he was in the same place, an invisible man.

In the end millions of people stayed home, and there was little movement or volatility among the voters, the people who vote as a consistent habit of participatory life mostly just did their grim, uninspired duty, and pulled the lever that they normally pull, an R or a D.

[Olog-hai]

Has Mr. Anderson not yet figured out how far left the GOP is, and still thinks that it is a party of conservatives?

[ansel12]

The question is can *we* learn the same lesson...sometimes “principles” must give way to pragmatism...sad as that might be.

The never ending push to the left, a constant hacking and chopping at conservatism.

You sound very "concerned", we are 4 years away from the next presidential election, yet your "concern" is never ending, we just nominated one of the most hard left nominees of either party in history, and definitely of the GOP, yet you still want to let us know that we need to move farther left.

[robowombat]

Yes about Evangelicals you are correct. My fears that a Rat stealth campaign within the Evangelical community that used the meme that voting for the follower of a ‘false prophet’ would put ones soul in danger of hellfire either wasn't tried or was a spectacular flop. Evangelicals are today the one group in the conservative/right correlation of forces that really are focused on the critical nature of social and political trends in our country. That they would overwhelmingly vote for a Mormon for President shows how disturbed or even fearful they are for the existence of the United States as a free country under a Constitution mandating individual liberties and limited government. This is a bellwether of trends moving beneath the surface in flyover country that the media and the elites ignore or scorn at their own risk.

[hosepipe]

The republican party is partying while carrying around Boehner like “WeekEnd at Bernies”..
Boehner is quite dead you know..

With Cantor on one arm and McConnell on the other..
The masquerade is not even funny..

[Graybeard58]

We will continue to have hard left candidates like Romney until the republican primaries are changed. Iowa and New Hampshire? Come on now, their importance is hugely exaggerated.

Another thing that must be changed is "open primaries". I live in such a state, here in Illinois, primary day, you walk in to the polling place and you are asked, "Democrat or Republican", you state your preference and receive that ballot, no registration by party whatsoever and you don't have to show any form of id for the primary or general election.

The way things stand, we are doomed to continue to have Romney clone candidates.

[Yashcheritsiy]

Thank you, Jeffrey, for making all the same points I was making two weeks ago.

[DBeers]

The question is can *we* learn the same lesson...sometimes “principles” must give way to pragmatism...sad as that might be.

Charlie Crist agrees would agree with you. Of course Charlie Crist is without principle, selfish, and only interested in obtaining political power -much like the Kenyan Marxist and all the other leftists, even the ones with an R next to their name.

Thanks but no thanks. Give me Liberty or give me death!

[Yashcheritsiy]

a member of one of two parties...Rat or Republican..will win

Let me tell ya lads, as sure'n as this here is the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and fifty four, I am here ta tell ya that for the nex' hundred years, a member o' one o' two parties, eithern the Democrats or the Whigs, is gonna win tha presideshual eeeelecshuns!

[Gay State Conservative]

Let me tell ya lads, as sure'n as this here is the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and fifty four, I am here ta tell ya that for the nex' hundred years, a member o' one o' two parties, eithern the Democrats or the Whigs, is gonna win tha presideshual eeeelecshuns!

Every President since 1870 has either been a Rat or a Republican.Given that the Rat Party is *entirely* behind their Communist "manifesto" the prospect of the Republican Party splitting suggests that the next 50 years will feature nothing but *Rat* presidents.And Rat Congresses as well.All that for the sake of "purity".

[sergeantdave]

Buckwheat won a second term because of VOTER FRAUD.

Republicans are simpletons. You could rob these morons in broad daylight, holding a gun, hatchet, bow and arrow and a claymore mine, and these 30 IQ republicans would blame the tea party.