How About the Conservatives Learning Something from McCain?
dougf,
Thanks for the discourse.
I’m thinking rebuilding the grand coalition isn’t that important. It’s a source of votes, but it has led to so many compromises and poor candidates and muddy policy that objective observers can say it hasn’t helped conservatives much over the past 15 years or so.
Just keeping track of the needs of libertarians and lawyers in the same issue gives most a headache. Never mind all of the other groups that coalesced around the vague label of conservative.
If anyone has a vision that can reunite them toward some common goal, great – let’s go. If not, then let them splinter and some other coalition of 70M voters can take over. I think the point is that coalitions are hard to maintain, especially if the leaders of the party don’t care.
Conservatives have their positions. They are quite willing to compromise, as they have for longer than you’ve been politically active. But, I doubt they’re going to give up on their convictions because you think they somehow owe you.
Almost all of them will vote Republican this time around, as they always have. I just don’t expect them to be excited, and therefore turnout will be on the low end. Some will give up, some will protest.
You can p-off with threats of being out in the wilderness; we’ve been there for years.
Purity?! pah.
