Conservatives and Romney work at working together

Google News/AP ^ | June 9, 2012 | Laurie Kellman, AP

[Innovative]

Conservatives at the core of the Republican Party are coalescing behind likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney faster than expected...

"I'm going (to support him) because it's my responsibility and, frankly, almost anything is going to be better than Obama," said Steve Troxel, chairman of the Lynchburg Republican Party in swing-state Virginia.

"The emerging consensus among conservatives is that the Republican House will lead the conservative charge and Romney will be in the White House to sign bills, rather than advance his own agenda," said Republican consultant Matt Mackowiak, who supported Texas Gov. Rick Perry in the primary. "Conservatives don't universally claim Romney as one of their own, but they appear to have united behind him, perhaps reluctantly, but without question."

[Timber Rattler]

What do we have here, only about six or seven showing up daily pushing Hillary Romney.

Yeah, they're "GOP-E first" lackeys trying to whip up support for their man though Alinskyite bullying and ridicule. It ain't working.

Heck, I just saw one of them engage in some wishful thinking the other night that JimRob would start purging well-respected long standing Constitutional Conservatives here at the behest of the neo-Romneyites just to bury the truth about this loser.

It's amazing (and pathetic) to behold.

[Timber Rattler]

I estimate maybe 30 freepers who take turns posting anti-Romney stuff and sucking all the joy out of the universe.

Including the owner of this site?

"I will never vote for an abortionist/homosexualist statist like Romney for the presidency."

[svcw]

No matter how much you deny it, Romney is a liberal.
place marker

[dirtboy]

He’s perhaps not a total tea party type but everything he has said and done since I’ve been paying attention to him has been satisfactory to me.

Well, that illustrates the problem I have always had with Romney - what he says changes for whatever office he is seeking. He tried to run to the left of Ted the Swimmer on abortion when he ran for Senate. So which Mitt would inhabit the Oval Office? Unfortunately, Mitt is what we are now stuck with.

[Kinder Gentler Machinegun Hand]

I agree.

It is too bad that some conservatives have transformed Reagan’s “Morning in America” into “Mourning in America.”

[muleskinner]

Any rational conservative has no choice but to hope he wins.

Did I see right? Rational conservative? On this thread? LOL

[MaxFlint]

I estimate maybe 30 freepers who take turns posting anti-Romney stuff and sucking all the joy out of the universe. There are far more people who disagree with you but don’t want to get caught up in fighting with people who have no interest in reason.

I still think 99% of freepers will vote for Romney. That 99% includes all conservative readers, not just recent posters. Among recent posters as many as 10% might vote third party, write in or leave it blank. Unless all of them live in swing states there's no chance they'll throw the election to Obama, so I wouldn't worry about it.

On the general question of why we're stuck with a less than conservative nominee, there's a myth on FR that the people are conservative, that the country is moving right. It's not that simple. On taxes and spending Republicans are moving right and have been since 2005 or so. Democrats are moving left on taxes but so far they're being blocked by Republicans. On abortion the country is moving slightly to the right. On gay rights we're losing badly. On defense spending things are moving slightly left. On the war on terror the country has turned hard left, which IMHO is why we're stuck with Obama. He was elected to end the war in Iraq.

A conservative who satisfied the social, fiscal and defense conservatives on FR would lose in a landslide.

But I don't have to argue this point with a lot of polling, it's obvious from the most meaningful polls, elections.

If the country is moving to the right why did the country elect a Democratic congress in 2006, and the most liberal Democrat president ever in 2008?

For that matter if the country is moving to the right why did Republican primary voters choose moderates McCain and Romney in 2008 and 2012?

[Ohioan]

Thank you for considering it!

Please note, the essential point is that we work to move public perceptions, as well as the candidate, in the right direction, with patient & polite persistence. The methodology can only improve what is otherwise a very bleak prospect.

Romney & American Conservatism.

William Flax

[Ohioan]

Whether America is going to move to the Right or further to the Left is the issue. The factors that will control are always in flux; the issue, always dependent upon how those factors are addressed.

If the country is moving to the right why did the country elect a Democratic congress in 2006, and the most liberal Democrat president ever in 2008?

The answer is that the Conservative position went largely unstated by the Republican leadership--or when stated, without a proper or effective development of the argument. This is not hindsight, real Conservatives were constantly very very upset with the way that those whom they had elected, performed.

We simply need to stop trusting the office seekers to define the issues, and do a much better job offering reasoned, rather than emotional, arguments to our fellow citizens.

A good place to start is by getting away from simply shouting insults at those one disagrees with, and learn to carefully explain why the position you believe in, really is the valid approach to any particular subject.

There are enough intelligent Conservatives right here, at Free Republic, to turn America around, if we simply use our intelligence, rather than our anger.

William Flax

[Ohioan]

I do not think that Gov. Romney is still a Massachusetts "liberal." But even if he is, the only approach that makes any sense is what I have been advocating--working to change the political climate--the thrust of the debate in America--to the Right, and appealing to Romney's willingness to act as a "problem solver."

In all the decades of being out there, in the ideological fight, I have yet to encounter any one on the Left, who can actually answer a reasoned argument on any of the basic issues. The problem is that most Conservative spokesmen simply refuse to discipline themselves to argue, step by step--from basic premises to conclusion--rather than simply fall into the idiotic approach that is implicit in the 30 Second Sound Bite.

We have arguments for which no Leftist has a good answer. We need to go at this thing with better discipline & a clearer understanding or how people have been misled--including many office holders.

No, we will not reach every one we target--far from it. But we can do a lot better job.

William Flax [Truth Based Logic]

[svcw]

Now just when was that Romney stopped being a liberal?

[MaxFlint]

There are enough intelligent Conservatives right here, at Free Republic, to turn America around, if we simply use our intelligence, rather than our anger.

We couldn't get a conservative nominee for president in the Republican party. What makes you think we can turn the country around?

Based on the election results the majority of Republicans are not FR style Reaganite conservatives. Some are moderates, a few are libertarians, a much larger group are people who don't like high taxes but don't care about abortion or homosexuality one way or the other, and the remainder are Reagan conservatives and social issues conservatives. Because the more balanced Reagan conservatives (who combine social and fiscal conservatism along with supporting a strong national defense) can't agree with the purely social conservatives they haven't been able to nominate anyone since George W. Bush, and even he was weak on fiscal conservatism.

In congress one thing we need to remember is that there are states where only a moderate or liberal Republican can win. We should not campaign against people like Scott Brown or Olympia Snow if they're the nominee. Sometimes that's the best you can do.

I will grant you one thing, if a strong conservative leader came forward he could move the country to the right the way Reagan did, but that means getting in the arena with a well financed, professional campaign. Complaining and arguing here won't do it.

[MaxFlint]

Now just when was that Romney stopped being a liberal?

When he decided to run for president. It's one of those amazing coincidences.

[altura]

I agree with your estimate about Romney voters.

Your assessment of the sentiment of the country is probably about right also.

I do think that people are moving right on abortion more than you do.

On gay rights, a lot of people don’t care that much. I don’t.

On the military, I think most people want America to retain a strong military presence and retain leadership in defense.

This is all muddled up with a general discontent with American military action in countries where we are going in without a clear purpose or where we have no national interest.

I personally am against interfering in middle-eastern countries. If we take the side of the rebels, the next thing we know is the rebels become the oppressors.

I really wish we would get to a position with our oil resources where we could ignore the middle east.

We are a sympathetic people and it’s hard to ignore suffering but there’s really not a dam thing we can do in those uncivilized countries with that peculiar oppressive religion.

On the other hand, the disaster of the Obama administration and the financial troubles have definitely moved people to the right on many issues.

[Ohioan]

He had clearly moved to the right in the debates--both in content & in tone (the latter, in contrast to the somewhat hysterical Santorum)

Those Conservatives who feel a need to keep insulting Gov. Romney, rather than quietly & logically stating the reasons why he should keep moving to the right, are certainly not helping in that direction.

William Flax

[Ohioan]

The problem you describe is largely because of George W. Bush & his mentor, Karl Rove, who had Bush chasing after previously developed voting blocks, rather than trying to actually lead people to reconsider their past conditioning by a Leftwing media's definition of the issues.

Bush's policies were not only fiscally not Conservative; his foreign policy was basically a revival of the Dean Rusk policy of the 1960s, which was a disaster. His social stands were almost as far Left. (Making a show of defending traditional marriage, hardly offset the Bush White House "leadership" on related issues--such as reversing his Attorney General's decision in 2003, to stop the celebration of "Homosexual Pride week" in the Justice Department, etc.)

William Flax