It is unclear just how large the group of Romney detractors is and how representative it is of the broader conservative movement. Many are evangelicals who flocked to one of Mr. Romney’s rivals in the Republican primaries, Mike Huckabee, the Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor whose own hopes for making a repeat presidential run in 2012 or 2016 could suffer if Mr. Romney were named to the ticket.
Indeed, Mr. Huckabee himself aimed a few jabs at Mr. Romney this week, arguing that he would make an unacceptable vice-presidential pick because of his shifting positions on several issues.
Nevertheless, the determined opposition to Mr. Romney highlights the nagging concerns about his ideological authenticity — and his Mormon religion — that dogged him throughout his primary campaign. It also illuminates the continuing unease Mr. McCain arouses among some evangelicals and other social conservatives who make up an important voting bloc of the Republican base.
Advice for the GOP? The evangelicals – or “religious right” as it they were known in the 90′s – have hijacked your party, and lead to the Neo-Con rendition an entire generation of voters now identifies as “The Republicans.” They are socially conservative, but the “conservation” ends there. And while they may have once been a formidable fundraising force, their days are gone. Cut the cord, and get back to real conservative ideals.
This is not to say that I feel Romney would benefit McCain, as most seem to think. I think his flip-flopping tendencies would serve only to create good teevee, and entertainment galore for liberal activists. But the evangelical opposition to him, and the voice they still have inside the GOP is not making decisions rationally, or from a strategic point of view, but rather from a position of hard-line intolerance and control that has damaged the party beyond recognition.
Goldwater himself would cringe.
And just as I feel decades of Republican near-Super Majority have been harmful to Utah, I predict the same result of an unchecked 8, 12, or even 16 year Democratic Super Majority on the federal level.
- Jason
Nice thread, and I couldn’t agree with you more.
The Republican party has little to benefit from the “religious right” in the long run. They are an attractive block because they get votes, but if the party were to “cut the chord,” as you say, I still think that these individuals would continue to vote for conservative Republicans. Judging by cost benefit analysis, I think that the party has more to gain by quietly leaving the relgious right behind.
Goldwater would cringe, and the Republican party has digressed from the party it used to be. The social agenda needs to be transformed and the party must redefine itself to fit the present; it can’t rely solely upon Reagan’s legacy. I thought that Mitt Romney could have helped that to happen, I guess we’ll see.