realjohnboy wrote:I see your point, Foxfyre. We are up to something like 8 or ten Republican candidates. The battle for the nomination will be the big issue in the coming months and I think that the religious right and the conservative right see themselves as being marginalized as some of the candidates move more towards the center. They are not happy about that and will nibble hard at the heels of any candidate who heads that way.
I think the battle for the Repub nomination is more fascinating than the one for the Dems.
Will the "rightists" (my abbreviation) still vote for whomever the Repub nominee ends up being? Probably, but you could, I say you could, see a "Take back America" third party candidate running under the flag of anti-abortion, pro-gun, bring religion back and anti-immigration.
Ignoring the fact that KW has mischaracterized my position again--that's a common rite these days
-- I agree that the GOP primary field is interesting though the Dem race is more interesting than usual this time. The GOP field is far more eclectic than the Dems though I think because Republicans tend to hold a more diverse assortment of views on various issues. My own Congressperson for instance votes with Nancy Peolosi more than a third of the time but to the best of my knowledge she has always been Republican.
And yeah, I think most Republicans are going to vote for the most conservative candidate whether or not that person supports everything they want rather than vote for a liberal Democrat who they know will give them very little if anything of what they want from government. Don'tyou think the same is true of most Democrats? They'll vote for the Democrat over a Republican no matter who the Democrat is?
Believe it or not, there is a strong voting block in the Religious Left too. My own denomination will have its national assembly this summer, and a whole lot of the issues to be presented will look like they belong at a Moveon.Org convention. I doubt many who support these issues will be voting Republican no matter who the candidate is.
Most elections these days are going to be decided by swing voters who are not ideologically pledged to any political party but who actually do vote on the issues themselves. Or, sigh, for the most likeable person.
The thing that could turn all this on its ear is for another Reagan or Ross Perot or similarly intriguing, attractive renegade surface and set himself (or herself) apart from the rest of the crowd on both sides. Such a person could benefit from the fact that nobody is generating much passionate loyalty on either side at this time.
Eh, no. 