To be fair, there is no candidate out there that is truly conservative. They all want to use the government to achieve their goals, which goes against being a true conservative. It doesn't help that every Republican candidate seems to be riding the retard-wave of the extremist, uneducated far-right (which is not going to win moderates and level-headed conservatives like myself).

I don't want the government to expand its reach (Sanders). I don't like people who think they're above the government (Hillary). I don't want someone running the White House as if it were a church (Cruz). I don't want a guy who has flopped on literally everything he stands for (Trump). I don't want a guy who speaks like a robot (Rubio). The only guys I was willing to vote for are out, and the only one I could get behind may bow out any minute now (kasich)

Republicans could have easily won this had they all stood behind a candidate that isn't an extremist. Someone who doesn't talk about illegals as if they were all hard core criminals. Someone that would just accept the fact that the government should have no say in who should and should not get married. A candidate that acknowledges that African Americans still face many injustices and that not all Muslims are terrorist. We needed a candidate that was open minded and stood for all people, regardless of sex, religion, sexual orientation or race and just wanted to keep the federal government in-check. But instead they fell for the Palin-like extremists and we ended up with Trump and Cruz.

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Posted by cardboardboxer

Member since Apr 2012

34342 posts

Posted on 2/22/16 at 7:26 pm to greenbastard

quote:
Republicans could have easily won this had they all stood behind a candidate that isn't an extremist.

No offense, but to expect that is to ignore what happened to the Republican party during the Obama Presidency. It imploded in a way that greatly enabled the far right, from tea parties to "gun nuts" to allowing yourself to be defined as the side on the "wrong" side of gay rights. Ted Cruz in particular is a PERFECT amalgamation of the extreme ideas that thrived during the last seven years, and how the party "establishment" has fallen to the point where they can't steer the wheel.

Quite frankly, you have your "mainstream" candidate in Rubio. He is a perfect example of the neocon fabrication that has been put forth as "mainstream" Republicanism since the 1980s. He is just another Bush, or more likely just another Cheney (and I say that as someone who politically is very neocon personally and likes the idea of a New American Century enforced at the end of a rifle). Rubio is the droid you are looking for, the problem is the Republican base have digested toxic messages for too long (from a Fox News and a Rush happy to serve it up for a living) and can't stand someone the "average American" finds palatable. To real conservatives that is a good thing, as Cruz is more dedicated to the cause than any real conservative candiate in decades. He is authentic.

The only reason Crus isn't running away from everyone is Trump is tapping into something even bigger than modern conservative politics. Trump is speaking to an older generation or two that has seen incredible change in their life and now hate to be told the way they were raised to think is wrong. It is a more emotional call to arms than Cruz or Rush or O'Reilly make, or even know how to make. It is a backlash to everything that has been pushed by PC culture since the 90's, a rejection of guilt associated with the fear of a funny speaking global or next door neighbor in a now smaller world.

Honestly I have waited for this backlash for years. I thought it would center around language (some sort of movement to make English the official language to block out Spanish) but it seemed obvious that all the liberal victories in the cultural wars the last 20 years would have a cost. That cost is Donald Trump.

The good news is it all might be a calculated plan on his part and he might be Reagan 2.0. Probably not but maybe.

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