Because…
the Bushes won three national elections
Posted on 08/05/2013 1:21:04 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Freshman Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and some other Republicans think they know why the GOP didn't win the last two presidential elections: They weren't conservative enough.
"If you look at the last 40 years, a constant pattern emerges," Cruz told ABC. "Anytime Republicans nominate a candidate for president who runs as a strong conservative, we win. And when we nominate a moderate who doesn't run as a conservative, we lose."
It's not a new thought, but it's dead wrong on several different levels.
First of all you have to pretty far in right field to think John McCain and Mitt Romney aren't conservatives. They are, by any rational definition of the term.
Granted, they aren't the most hardline conservatives ever to represent the party, and frankly they weren't great candidates. But no sane person thinks they're liberals, and few even think they're moderates.
Here's what they were: The best of the bunch in each cycle. They also won the nomination by appealing to Republican primary voters, a group that is notoriously conservative. Both, by the way, chose VP candidates who resonated with red-meat conservatives - Sarah Palin and Paul Ryan - and not many other voters.
Secondly, Cruz is ignoring the glaring fact that both of the Bush presidents were reasonable conservatives just like McCain and Romney. Between them, the Bushes won three national elections, and that ain't hay.
The only pure conservative Republican who won the presidency in modern times was Ronald Reagan, and he did many great things for America. But the country that elected Reagan in the 1980s is different from the one we have today.
It has fewer people who are attracted to the Republican themes of fiscal responsibility and traditional values. It has more people who think those concepts are silly and outdated. It even has more people who adore Big Government and see no problem whatsoever with taking more from the system than they put in.
The facts are clear to anyone who thinks honestly instead of ideologically. Outside of the South and Wyoming or Montana, it's hard for Republican presidential candidates to find a state they can carry. The GOP even lost Virginia and Florida in the last two, and North Carolina in '08. Former tossup states Missouri, Colorado and New Mexico are trending Democratic - and the GOP lost all three the last two times. Huge states like California, Illinois and New York are so deep in the Democrats' pockets you'd need a mining expedition to dig them out.
With an electoral map like that, a hard-right GOP presidential candidate in 2016 like Ted Cruz would get mowed down. Remember, he isn't running in deep-red Texas. We're talking about a national electorate where you have to appeal to women, minorities and senior citizens who want to make sure the Social Security checks keep coming. If you think you can win them over by sounding like Rush Limbaugh or Glen Beck, you are sadly mistaken. And just because some Republicans don't sound like the kings of talk radio doesn't mean they are sellouts or weasels.
A moderate Republican like Jeb Bush or Chris Christie is the only kind who can win, and even that won't be easy. If Republicans don't nominate an electable conservative, they are guaranteeing the victory of Hillary Clinton or whoever wins the Democratic nomination.
The cold, hard numbers are there, plain as day, whether anyone likes them or not. Ted Cruz is not the next Ronald Reagan. He's the next Barry Goldwater.
SO when a gay-friendly MASS Governor who brought a state version of ObamaCare into creation is “conservative” then the word has been redefined beyond all meaning.
gop is practically worthless
Between those four, they lost three Presidential elections too.
Being to the right of Hillary a wee bit does not constitute conservative "by any rational definition of the term".
The left shoulder is to the right of the left ditch, but that doesn't make it the right lane.
“...you have to pretty far in right field to think John McCain and Mitt Romney aren’t conservatives.”
And you’d have to be far, far away over the left field fence to think they are...or anywhere close.
But no sane person thinks they’re liberals, and few even think they’re moderates.
________________________________________
Granted McCain is pro-life
but hes liberal on the illegal aliens...
and as for Willard, he has declared himself a “moderate progressive”...
I guess hes among that “few” that the author speaks of..
because if “progressive” is not a proudly singular liberal term, I dont know what is..
Note to GOP: Stop running ringers.
Because…
the Bushes won three national elections
“It even has more people who adore Big Government and see no problem whatsoever with taking more from the system than they put in.”
And FRiends, this statement sums up what is wrong with our Country today. Too many non-producers. Too many takers from the tax payers pockets.
Time to mow the weeds in America......
We haven’t had a landslide victory since Reagan.
Bush the dad lost to Clinton. Dole lost to Clinton. Bush the younger barely eeked out a win.
McCain, Romney lost to an amature.
This op-ed writer creates his own reality since history shows Conservatives win big while moderates barely win
H.W. won because of the Reagan Legacy. W. won because of the real Clinton Legacy. W never lied to us. He told us he wasn’t a “conservative” but we either didn’t believe him or we just overlooked it because we so badly wanted a President with an “R” by his name. Jeb Bush? Who the hell is he?
“The GOP even lost Virginia and Florida in the last two, and North Carolina in ‘08. Former tossup states Missouri, Colorado and New Mexico are trending Democratic - and the GOP lost all three the last two times”
We lost Missouri last time? What crack den did this journalist crawl out of? Hard to take people seriously when they fail on basic facts.
“A moderate Republican like Jeb Bush or Chris Christie is the only kind who can win”
=
“A moderate Reoublican like John McLame or Mitt Romney is the only kind who can win”
After TWO defeats, please don’t tell me any Freepers are buying this crapola?!
They’re right in the same way Trotsky was to the right of Lenin
The author says,
The cold, hard numbers are there, plain as day, whether anyone likes them or not.
If the numbers are so plain to see why does'nt the author cite a single one of them?
The Rinos are trying to stampede the party into a party of pastel colors, a party of mush, which has little appeal to conservatives even if we, by surrendering so many principles, could conceivably find a way to political power by relinquishing what we believe.
Conversely, we conservatives are trying to have our way without properly making the case. Let us face it, Karl Rove is collecting data which he is massaging to approximate the answers he wants. What organization do we have polling on our side? Where is our data? How can we go to Republican fat cats, or even libertarian fatcats like the Kohl Brothers and solicit their money if we cannot show them numbers, graphs, PowerPoint presentations, at least some evidence that a conservative message can somehow prevail?
I know we can make a lot of arguments without the data, we can say that Obama's two elections were aberrations because of his race. We can say that our candidates Dole, and McCain were inept, we can say that our candidates McCain and Romney flatly refused to wage campaigns against the character of Barack Obama because of his race. I may believe these things to be true, but why should any donor believe them enough to part with his money? Where is my evidence?
Karl Rove will point to the last senatorial elections and say it is the Tea Parties' fault. We will point to the last senatorial election and say it was Carl Rove's fault and we will have advanced the argument for neither side any further than finger-pointing will get us. Organization will trump finger-pointing every day.
We do not have the structure, the coordination, the money, to accumulate the data which even now the Republican national committee and Karl Rove are assembling to support their arguments.
Where is the Heritage Foundation when we need it?
Co-opted, naturally, I would suppose.
Gerald Ford, George HW Bush, Bob Dole, John McCRap, and Mittens Romney really helped
Are we showing enough respect to the Vichy Republicans?
Way too much if you ask me. And you didn’t.
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