Posted on 01/04/2013 12:49:00 PM PST by Bratch
The disastrous 2012 election and embarrassing fiscal cliff standoff has brought forth one principal conclusion from establishment Republicans: They have a primary problem. The intra-party contests, or threat thereof, have become the original sin that explains many of the partys woes in the minds of GOP leaders. Its the primaries that push their presidential nominees far to the right (see self-deportation and 47 percent); produce lackluster Senate candidates (Todd Akin has almost become a one-word shorthand); and, as seen most vividly in the last two weeks, dissuade scores of gerrymandered House members from face-saving compromise while politically emasculating their speaker. What to do about the primaries has become Topic A in many a post-election Republican soul-searching session, and now the first steps are being taken to address the issue. For Senate Republicans, that means a modified return to their 2010 posture of openly playing in primaries. A retiring House Republican is starting a super PAC to help House members challenged from the right. And an RNC commission is mulling over changes to the partys presidential primary.
In the Senate, where at least five GOP losses in the past two election cycles could be attributed to primaries, Republican leaders are planning to intervene in selected 2014 races to ensure preferred candidates win the nomination.
High-profile Senate Republicans are going to try to pre-empt bloody primaries with aggressive, early recruitment and support effectively trying to clear fields.
(Excerpt) Read more at dyn.politico.com ...
In other words, they suck.
...vs. 13 years of building a good, solid conservative party that eventually overtakes the decrepit, sclerotic Republican Party...
...I'm not seeing a problem here!
The disastrous 2012 election and embarrassing fiscal cliff standoff has brought forth one principal conclusion from establishment Republicans: They have a primary problem. The intra-party contests, or threat thereof, have become the original sin that explains many of the partys woes in the minds of GOP leaders. Its the primaries that push their presidential nominees far to the right (see self-deportation and 47 percent)... [and] dissuade scores of gerrymandered House members from face-saving compromise while politically emasculating their speaker.This problem is entirely the fault of self-described conservatives (CINOs) who refused to vote for Pubbies -- now the reasonable conclusion for the Pubbies to draw is, the candidates weren't far enough toward the middle, and the number of conservative voters has shrunk to an unsustainable minority. And it's not as if this hasn't been talked about since 2004, at least, right here on FR.
The proposer of the idea just wouldn't allow you and me to vote. I live in Illinois where we don't register by party either. I'm sure there are other states that are the same.
From my home page:
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Heres how I think primaries should be organized:
My suggestion is basically to hold the first primary in the state that has the highest percentage of GOP votes in the last election, the 2nd primary in the 2nd highest, and so on. 2 primaries a week for 25 weeks, with the last primaries being the suckup-to-the-democrats. And the democrats could easily have their primary schedule the same way, if they wanted.
This way, if a state is 60% republican, there is still incentive for them to get out the vote for 61% republican so they can bump up their state in the primary schedule.
Also: Rotate all the states (even the big ones) through an early schedule so that everyone gets access at some point to the front line.
OR
Let each state bid when they want their primary to take place. The earlier the primary, the fewer the delegates they control according to some logarithmic or steep curve formula.
18 posted on Thursday, January 31, 2008 9:55:08 AM by Kevmo (We need to get rid of the Kennedy Wing of the Republican Party. ~Duncan Hunter) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1962610/posts?page=18#18
Second thing is the order of the primaries should be determined by the percentage of republicans in the last vote. The higher the %pubbie, the sooner the state appears on the primary schedule, with a mix of big & little states and our staunchest republican states get to go FIRST. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1965735/posts?page=862#862
24 posted on Friday, September 04, 2009 8:52:29 PM by Kevmo (So America gets what America deserves - the destruction of its Constitution. ~Leo Donofrio, 6/1/09)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse] http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2332420/posts?page=24#24
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We need a thrid party, but it will take decades to make one viable - by then we'll all be gathered together to cheer for the Homeland as the enforcers goose-step along the parade route.
Of course, you are right. I just settled for 1:1 because I know Boner couldn’t even get that, much less 1:3-100.
The voters are not responsible for this. It is the GOPe lament over the fact that their elites are getting shot down that has caused them to respond this way. They fully ignore the fact that it’s their own scorched earth policy of going after conservatives with everything they have and afterwards refusing to support the conservatives who beat them which contributes to the losses. Whether Dede Scuzzafava or any other socialist with an (R) next to their name, they scream when you don’t support their liberal, but they have no problem stabbing a conservative in the back to keep them from winning.
When they should be following what the voters want, instead they spend the big bucks in primaries to prop up their liberal comrades. They think conservatives will just have to give in to their form of socialism because it’s not the same as the dems’ marxism. Their mistaken beliefs are going the way of the dodo.
The truth of the matter is, as Rush Limbaugh talked about before his break, the dems have come to realize there aren’t enough of these middle ground independent voters to make a difference. The republicans have foolishly continued to pursue this belief and have lost every time. The democrats have realized that there is a larger number of voters who pay no attention to politics, don’t care for either party and don’t know enough to make a decision one way or another. Yet they can be brought to vote by a strong appeal. The dems did it by charging their base and ignoring those fuzzy middle people the GOPe/RINOs coveted so strongly.
Not only did their strategy not win RINO Romney the election, it cost him the election. Playing to get the middle, he could not run against Obama. He could not present a clear contrast at all. The know nothings, those who hate both parties, saw nothing special about the GOP and nothing terrible about the dems. So why switch horses? They didn’t. Now the “Stupid Party” elites want to pretend the voters are responsible for their ineptitude and must be controlled. Can’t you just see that not working out?
Over two elections, they haven’t learned a single solitary thing. They lose and they will continue to lose, as long as they think abandoning the base to court the middle will win. It is a failed strategy and no straddle the fence, middle of the road thinking is going get us out of the predicament we are in now.
No longer satisfied playing the part of dem lite, the RINO/GOPe is going full monty. Act like dems, talk like dems, go after conservatives like dems. They can be dems too!
CLOSE the primaries...it is long past time that the GOP puts a stop to Democrats choosing our candidates...unless they prefer it that way...
Amen.
“They” the “elites” — ridiculous paranoid nonsense.
The voters are ALWAYS responsible. And because of what voters do or fail to do, candidacies happen.
So you believe the voters are responsible for the GOPe’s idiocy? Because that is what I wrote about. The elites devotion to failed techniques and strategies — abandon your base for the squishy middle while giving the enemy a pass is just so effective./s
Well I guess we voters need to find a way to vote the Karl Roves of the world out of the way. But it is kind of hard to do that as long as the dem libs find them to be such useful idiots and give them all the adoration and attention they crave.
But I do thank you for making my point. The voters do make candidacies happen. It’s time for the GOPe to start paying attention to the voters and stop trying to prop up their old socialist RINO friends running for office by manipulating the primaries.
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