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The reality is that the conservative base within the Republican party has been continually shrinking for years. In fact, as of last year, only 42% of Republican voters self-identified as both socially and economically conservative. 24% see themselves as moderate or liberal on both social and economic issues, while the rest see themselves as being either socially moderate or economically moderate.
Even within the 42% who self-identify as both socially and economically conservative, there’s a huge variation in dedication to conservative principles. The percent of Republicans – of Republicans – who self-identify as “very conservative” is smaller still. As the 2016 campaign opened, only 18% of Republican voters wanted a “very conservative” nominee.
Here is a reality that hard line conservatives like everyday readers of RedState absolutely must internalize: it’s going to be exceptionally difficult to force a candidate who is in total ideological agreement with us upon the Republican party, and if we are to do so, that candidate will have to have exceptional skill at persuading moderate voters. And at the risk of having tomatoes thrown at me, I must point out that moderate voters are not persuaded by repeated recitations of how very conservative a candidate is.
Honestly, the “how” of improving conservatives’ persuasion skills with non-conservatives is of decidedly secondary importance to the idea that conservatives need to persuade moderates and liberals at all. Right now, many are stuck in the belief that just being conservative enough is enough, and that voters should just flock to the most conservative candidate available via instinct – and if they don’t, hey, their problem, not ours.
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And until that happens, there will continue to be folks like Trump who will come along and appeal to these people who have felt stepped on all their lives, and who will know how to push the emotional buttons that conservatives have been ignoring for too long. And once those buttons have been pressed – well, as we saw, almost nothing can un-press them. No amount of evidence that a particular candidate is unfit for office can dislodge a voter who is truly emotionally connected to a candidate. And we are doomed to repeat the experience of Trump again.
- Discussion
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Postmortem for the Conservative Movement, Part 3: Failure to Communicate https://t.co/F7QFPChVdo
— RedState (@RedState) May 12, 2016
I look at it this way, though, a little differently than most. Who has the MOST right to feel stepped on? The most conservative of us. The ones who elected people to push back against DC. Now, it seems that MANY of those supporting Trump are just angry for the sake of being angry…they’ve been given a chance to destroy something so in their anger, they are destroying the very party who could offer some hope. They see Trump as whatever savior they think they need…a repeat of Obama, really. He is going to make the burden of DC worse than ever before.
I agree that true conservatives have been dwindling, but thanks to the public school education on ALL levels, what can you expect? Truth is not being taught, nor is our founding, the many great sacrifices America has made down through the centuries for restoration of the rule f law and to protect other countries. In stead, our children are being taught we are the great Satan and it is believed by 90% of all graduates. Conservatism has to be tough at home, ingrained into their minds and not left to others to do. As Bauer and Rose said today on the air, we send our children to the public schools to be indoctrinated. Most parents have NO idea just how thorough that is. We send conservatives to college and reap no just liberals, but anarchists. We should be looking into online programs that teach to the skills needed for a career or job. This would prepare our kids and would bypass the extremism taught by the tenured professors.Pray for righteousness to be restored and for the peace of Jerusalem
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