I wish Mitt Romney wasn’t a moderate and could have drawn a clearer distinction between himself and President Obama. I wish he had been more assertive in the last debate, especially on Libya. I wish Sandy would have hit after the election. I wish I knew what Chris Christie was thinking.<\/p>\n
All of this aside, the Republican party has two choices going forward: (1) To accept the presumed national shift to the left and seek to nominate more moderate candidates or (2) to seek party leadership and potential presidential candidates from real, articulate, Constitutional defenders of liberty.<\/p>\n
The mainstream media will tell us, once again, that the problem is extremism. The first option is more practical, they say, as we must understand the new political realities. The problem with this approach is that it simply doesn’t work. Obama moved to the center to beat Republican moderates McCain and Romney in the last two elections. Granted there were other factors involved in these contests, but there is little evidence to suggest that moderating the party will win favor with the electorate.<\/p>\n
To me, the second option is a no-brainer. The problem with moderates like McCain and Romney (and Christie) is their lack of a strong core compass. They adjust their tactics to the situation, appearing both conservative and liberal at times. They are seen by some as pragmatic problem solvers, but their solutions are often lukewarm. They don’t consistently excite voters because nobody really knows what they stand for.<\/p>\n
Before I proceed, for the record, I think Romney is a decent man with strong leadership skills. I did not support him in the primary but I did so in the general election. I’m not throwing him under the bus, but we must face reality.<\/p>\n
Also for the record, I am not a registered Republican. I usually vote Republican by default, but the party has drifted away from its roots. I don’t even like the word conservative<\/em> these days because it doesn’t quite mean what it used to.<\/p>\n Here’s the fundamental problem as I see it. Roughly 45% of Americans will vote Democrat and 45% will vote Republican in any given national election. The remaining 10% decide each election. Many pundits presume this group to be “moderates” and candidates often shift to the middle to court their votes after the primaries. I believe many in this group are not necessarily looking for a middle-of-the-road candidate, but instead seek someone who can deliver a real vision, a complete and coherent package that will advance the country. True “conservatism” that includes a genuine Constitutional basis and seriously limited government is the alternative<\/em> to the current\u00a0malaise. Moderate candidates like Romney offer more competent leadership and a move in the right direction, but nothing more.<\/p>\n The US is $16 trillion in debt with a majority of Americans relying on various government programs. The list is a long one, including entitlements for which citizens have been taxed directly such as Social Security and Medicare, various forms of income redistribution such as SNAP and EITC, and middle-class entitlements such as Pell grants, mortgage deductions and Chevy Colt subsidies. I’ve met a number of people who understand that our situation is unsustainable, but they’re only willing to “sacrifice” their pet programs if others get slashed as well. They see modest cuts like Romney proposed as making little difference over the long term. Unless they see the prospects for serious reform, they will opt for the status quo and kick the can down the road.<\/p>\n We’ve got some time to reflect on this, but we shouldn’t forget that the battle for liberty never stops. Political and economic ignorance remains widespread. We don’t elect kings and we must never stop demanding accountability from all of our elected officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I wish Mitt Romney wasn’t a moderate and could have drawn a clearer distinction between himself and President Obama. I wish he had been more assertive in the last debate, especially on Libya. I wish Sandy would have hit after the election. I wish I knew what Chris Christie was thinking. All of this aside, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}