Is there any reason to believe a "RINO" won't be the 2016 GOP Nominee?

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by Gorn Captain, Dec 19, 2013.

  1. Gorn Captain

    Gorn Captain Banned

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    Naturally, I'm using the Tea Party defintion of "RINO" since they apply it to even the Reaganite Right Senator John Cornyn, much less Chris Christie.

    We're now in our SECOND go around of the Far Right saying, after a Presidential defeat, "That's ti! No more RINOs, next time we're going to nominate a real, true-blue, no compromises, no moderation conservative"....first was after McCain, now after Romney.

    But is there any indication such a Candidate would win the Nomination now?

    Big Business donors and organizations, the life's blood of the Republican Party, have joined John Boehner's attack on the Tea Party with an "Attaboy John, slap 'em down". The RNC itself has pushed for things like immigration reform and "minority outreach"....which the Base loathes. People like Bobby Jindal have said the Party has to "stop being the stupid party"....by which he meant going out there and supporting what the Base wants to hear.....reference things like Todd "legitimate rape" Akin or Richard "Pregnancy from rape may be God's plan". (Note: Jindal doesn't want the GOP to stop believing in those things...just not be open and honest about them. :)

    The Right like to claim "A REAL conservative can win...just like Reagan did." Except Ronald Reagan didn't run "completely pure". His record as Governor of California was conservative...for its time...but would be considered WILDLY liberal by today's Right's standards. And his projected spending cuts were miniscule, even by 1980 dollars.....versus how much he wanted to cut taxes and balloon defense spending....which led to his historic-for-the-time deficits.

    Reagan wasn't running even half as close on the political spectrum as Ted Cruz or Rand Paul would in 2016.....you could argue he was even running TO THE LEFT of where Mitt Romney ran last year. Reagan nor HW Bush his Veep were talking about turning Medicare into a "voucher".

    And when he ran for re-election in 1984?.....read my signature line below from his debate with Mondale.

    What other examples can they point to? Dubya? Remember in the wake of Gingrich's Revolution....George W. Bush had to run as a "COMPASSIONATE conservative"....his own version of his father's "kinder, gentler" slap at Reagan. And even that only let him win on an Electoral College win...not a popular vote win.

    Dubya didn't SCARE donors, either. Between his father's more moderate views....and Cheney though a hawk, no rabid social con (he couldn't be with his daughter being gay).....GOP Donors weren't scared of them being wild-eyed radicals who'd drag the Party to its doom (atleast not until 2006 :) ).

    The Right doesn't see a basic problem....the further Right a Republican gets, the more likely they are to be out of the mainstream and scare off Moderates and Independents. That's a basic fact of the political spectrum....same would be true of some "pure liberal" on the Democratic side.

    A candidate cannot be "pure conservative"....and appeal to voters who are not "pure conservative"....something has to give. Either the candidate's stated principles...or the votes.
     

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