Never mind that every Republican since Eisenhower has been conservative
Nixon and both Bushes would like a word...
or that the last unequivocal(by your fringe standards) conservative nominated by the Republicans only won 12% of the electoral college...
...as would Ronald Reagan and Bob Dole.
How exactly is it that the Republican primary voters(more conservative by nature) are pragmatic and go for a moderate in their primaries and then ideological to the point of ceding elections when it actually matters?
They're not. The problem has been that they're more concerned with conventional wisdom than smart electioneering in the establishment, and that means guys like McCain and Romney get a boatload of support while the remaining conservative candidates swap support and struggle to gain a foothold. Does Romney win the primary if there's simply one conservative option as opposed to 4 or 5? Probably not, he barely got 50% of the primary vote even when everyone else had dropped out.
You'd have to be profoundly stupid/lazy to hold such a strategy.
Never underestimate the stupidity of the Republican establishment.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2014-04-09 09:05 pm (UTC)Nixon and both Bushes would like a word...
or that the last unequivocal(by your fringe standards) conservative nominated by the Republicans only won 12% of the electoral college...
...as would Ronald Reagan and Bob Dole.
How exactly is it that the Republican primary voters(more conservative by nature) are pragmatic and go for a moderate in their primaries and then ideological to the point of ceding elections when it actually matters?
They're not. The problem has been that they're more concerned with conventional wisdom than smart electioneering in the establishment, and that means guys like McCain and Romney get a boatload of support while the remaining conservative candidates swap support and struggle to gain a foothold. Does Romney win the primary if there's simply one conservative option as opposed to 4 or 5? Probably not, he barely got 50% of the primary vote even when everyone else had dropped out.
You'd have to be profoundly stupid/lazy to hold such a strategy.
Never underestimate the stupidity of the Republican establishment.