Not true...remember "Anybody but Romney"? Even Fred Thompson jumped in and led for awhile until the Establishment, with the help of the MSM, slapped them all down.
You are confusing two different elections.
2008 - The Evangelicals didn't want Romney because he was a Mormon. (Which is a darned good reason, Mormons are evil.) The Wall Street Republicans didn't want Huckabee because he was a religious nut and didn't believe in smaller government. Thompson popped his head in and turned out to be a dud. McCain got the nomination for no other reason than he was the guy all factions could agree upon. No one expected him to win because Bush fucked it up so badly.
2012 - Yes, there were a lot of people who were against Romney, but at the end of the day, OH MY GOD, THERE'S A NEGRO IN THE WHITE HOUSE!!! Forget about Mormonism, Romney could have been sacrificing virgins to C'Thulhu and you idiots would have still supported him. He came off as a rich guy who didn't have a clue.
2016 - Trump got the nomination only because he would say the racist shit out loud. The establishment and conservatives couldn't agree on a sensible alternative like Kasich or even Cruz. Trump only fell ass-backwards into the presidency because too many knobs voted third party and Hillary was an awful candidate.
Romney, McCain...even Bush...the fix was in.
I'm done with that forever.
Other people smarter than me at the time understood what I understand now...which is why McCain and Romney lost.
Actually, no. They lost because they were up against a superior opponent, and because you guys really are in the minority, which is why Trump lost again in 2020.
If Republicans want to win...they'll give us who WE want ... otherwise, they should get used to the reality that Trump may be the last Republican President...which I can live with.
The Biden's the Democrats are electing don't get much done...just a little here and there around the edges...by design.
Yes, our entire system is DESIGNED to only be incremental change. Trump actually didn't accomplish that much, other than making our politics a lot uglier. But other than another irresponsible tax cut and a badly designed wall to make the bigots feel better, what did he really accomplish? Not much.
The fix is in in your party too...more blatantly. And now UNIVERSAL mail in voting fucks the progressives as much as it fucks the conservatives.
Progressives are passionate...but a miniscule minority in the party.
Mail in voting really isn't the problem here. So let's be honest. There are about 20 % of the electorate on each side who are the very passionate partisans. The conservatives and progressives, if you will. Then there are another 25% on the edges who are leaning, but not crazy, and probably don't spend a lot of time thinking about politics one way or the other until election time comes. In the middle you have about 10% who could swing either way.
The problem is the 20% are the ones who show up for primaries. So the candidates say a bunch of whacky stuff they don't really mean to appeal to the primary voters, and then spend the rest of the election and their tenures in office walking it back.
Now, up until recently, the GOOD news about this system was that if a party really shit the bed, and nominated a crazy like Goldwater or McGovern, enough of the middle and leaners would hold their nose and vote for the guy they didn't particularly like. Of course, the problem in 2016 was the Republicans REALLY Shit the bed with Trump. Shit it to the point where it soaked through the mattress and dripped into the box spring where you will never get that smell out. And you voted for it anyway.
When those that REALLY cared about the issues were the majority of those voting...that gave the Progressive a disproportionate amount of power in the party.
But now you are neutered by low information idiots who will check the box for whomever they are told to...and you dunces cheered for it....because you are shortsighted fools
By 2024 Republicans will build a ballot harvesting machine that rivals that of the Democrats...and all you will have accomplished is fucking yourselves for a infinitesimally short term gain.
Except progressives really didn't have disporportionate power in the party. Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Obama, Hillary, Biden.. every last one of them was pretty middle of the road. (I mean, I know you guys were horrified by the Black Guy, but really, he was far more of a centrist. He essentially adopted Romney's health care plan, which you guys were fine with until the Black Guy did it.) I think the guy furthest outside the mainstream was Kerry, and he legitimately lost because he was trying to paint himself as something everyone knew he wasn't.
2024, Republicans will find ballot harvesting isn't going to help them. It's that their ideas suck. Trump does better than he should because we are a dumbed down society that thinks that celebrity is a virtue, and "The Donald" benefits from 40 years of self-promotion. Without him, I don't think you guys do as well.
All by design...couldn't have you goofballs running the show now could they...
No, we couldn't. We saw what it's like to have goofballs running the show from 2017 to 2020. Worst Plague in 100 years, worst Depression in 80 years, worst race riots in 50 years.
