[Lunatic Fringe]

"If Hunter does get the nomination, how many of these Rudy McRomneyites will swallow the bile they have been spewing and vote for him?"

A hell of a lot more than the turnout of the Religious Right if we don't nominate an anti-abortion Evangelical!

The Fundies are notorious for taking their ball and running home if we don't play their game the way they like. I personally think if we can get rid of them, we'd gain more moderate Independents and Conservative Democrats than we would lose to the new Pat Robertson Party.

[Antoninus]

The Fundies are notorious for taking their ball and running home if we don't play their game the way they like.

You've just put your finger on something very important. You've apparently figured out that you can't keep spitting in religious conservatives' face and stil expect them to support you. Where the disconnect comes in is that you seem to think that religious conservatives should continue to support Republicans who are so openly disdainful of them. Why would any group with significant political clout do that??

It's really simple. If you want the votes of religious conservatives, you've at least got to act like you don't hate them...

[tfelice]

If you "get rid of them" then you won't have much of a party left. Gallup numbers show that on average 39% of the population describe themselves as Evangelical/Born-Again.

[P8riot]

I wouldn't be in such a hurry to bad mouth all Christians if I were you. I don't believe that most of us don't vote our religion anyway. I almost did back in '76, but good sense got the better of me, not that it mattered much.

If Giuliani, McCain, or Romney took the nomination I'd vote for them over Hitlery, but I'd be holding my nose the entire time.

[fr_freak]

The Fundies are notorious for taking their ball and running home if we don't play their game the way they like. I personally think if we can get rid of them, we'd gain more moderate Independents and Conservative Democrats than we would lose to the new Pat Robertson Party.

I think you show a severe lack of understanding of the true demographics in this country. Your dismissal of "Fundies" as some irrelevant fringe group tells me that you have no idea what kind of people actually populate this country. That kind of ignorance is exactly the reason Republicans lost in this last election, and will continue to lose unless they change their ways.

And also, the experiment where "Fundies" are removed from the party has already been done. That's how we got modern Democrats.

[GulfBreeze]

Well why the hell don't you go join the "moderate... conservative Democrats" in their party? Because it really looks like you line up well with their stated positions.