GOP: The Race versus the Base

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council Action in an Update today wrote, “The lesson that some are drawing from the results of the Republican presidential voting to date is that the race for the party's nomination is wide open. The deeper lesson is that the race for the GOP agenda is anything but wide open...

“The simple truth is that the conservative coalition--a three-legged stool--stands when social, economic and defense conservatives work together on an interlocking agenda. The coalition collapses when any of the legs is missing. (Dick) Armey and others, especially the early enthusiasts for Rudy Giuliani, suggested that the social conservative leg of the stool is dispensable, or at least that it can be appreciably shortened without impact on the greater stability of the coalition. This thesis is not only false in theory; it now has been decisively shown not to represent what the conservative coalition actually believes. The three winners of the contests to date are each emblematic of one of the legs of the stool, and each is attempting to shore up his standing with the other two "legs":

State-------------Winner-------------Emblem

Iowa---------------Mike Huckabee----Social Leg
New Hampshire-----John McCain--------Defense Leg
Michigan------------Mitt Romney-------Economic Leg

“In Michigan, these three individuals, now leading their party's nomination race, won more than 85% of the vote. The remainder went to Ron Paul (who represents the small, doctrinaire libertarian portion of the coalition), Fred Thompson (who has all three legs but is struggling to interest voters in them when his manner suggests his own lack of passion for them), and Rudy Giuliani (trailing badly now because each leg of the coalition has a much better option than he is). Giuliani's crushing last-place finish in Michigan only underscores the larger point: the GOP coalition is looking for coherence on all three parts of the message and the base constituency of the party is fairly evenly split among those who hold each of these legs highest when forced to choose among them.

"Somehow or other, if the conservative coalition is to re-form, these three legs need their favorites to unite around the strongest themes of each, to wit: 1) the surge worked, and it is no longer business as usual against radical Islamic terrorism - we will take the fight to them and win for our values (McCain); 2) the government is run with all the efficiency of a barroom brawl where the sailors are bad enough but it's actually the drunken captains doing the damage, and someone with business acumen has to clean it up (Romney); and 3) moral values are indispensable to a free nation that hopes to have and keep small government, and we can't get there without some Old-Time Religion, and those old-timers, our nation's almost uniformly Christian founders, knew it (Huckabee).

Perkins adds, “…There is probably nothing they could do that would be more unifying than to rally now around a platform that embodies the coalition in full…”
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Perkins summarizes, “The message: the GOP electorate is asking its leaders to reassemble the stool, plant it firmly in the cockpit of the party, and get the plane fast down the runway and off the ground. The message to Rudy? The tailwinds have passed you by, and the party you want to lead is moving on. The race is not wide open. A unified agenda beckons the GOP to a surge of its own.”

I agree with some of what Perkins is saying, there is a Republican candidate who I believe adequately represents all three legs of the stool and that is Congressman Duncan Hunter. He has been ignored by conservative talk radio, though he is the strongest true conservative. I can understand that he is being ignored by the radically biased liberal main stream media because he is an anathema to all that they believe.

Hunter authored the Life at Conception Bill, he did something constructive about the immigration problem in his home district, San Diego, California – he built a 50 mile long fence while the amnesty loving McCain mouths promises about being the best guy to get our borders secured (LOL). He also opposed our Free Trade policy, which is economically sound than globalist Romney who like President Bush would side with Big Business over the American taxpayer and worker.

Hunter is the only true conservative I see among the GOP candidates. Huckabee, Thompson and Paul may have some of the package, but only Duncan Hunter is the complete package. Unfortunately he is being ignored pretty much by everyone. It seems like conservative talk show hosts are predominately shills for the Republican Party pushing Romney, Giuliani and Thompson as those who could win over Rodham-Clinton. To me I principles are more important than pure politics. I am thoroughly disgusted with that President Bush used me to get into office and has largely betrayed conservative principles and that is exactly what we would have or even worse with a nominee in a McCain, a Romney, a Giuliani or maybe even with a Huckabee.

I hope and pray that someone like a Representative Duncan Hunter rises from the ruins of the increasingly unprincipled GOP and gives me someone for whom I can cast a vote.