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But they depend on the teabaggers for their votes. If they start dumping the KKKers, teabaggers, Neo-Cons, White Power freaks, anti-abortioner wackos, survivalists nutjobs, and all the other right wing extremists, there will be virtually no one left in the GOP.
I know, I know. You Republicans will never be able to drop the lunatic fringe. They are your main voting base, and without them, there wouldn't BE Republicans.
2. Social conservatives like Richard Murdouck, Sarah Palin, or Todd Akin?
3. Moderate Republicans like John McCain and Chuck Grassley?
4. Fiscal conservative governors like Scott Walker or Nikki Haley?
That's a pretty broad tent, people. Who in your mind doesn't represent the GOP? I think you've become like the democrats, you're trying to make too many people happy and the attempt to do so is making GOP candidates unelectable on a national basis.
Rand Paul is also socially conservative and fiscally conservative. Likewise for Walker and Haley.
The Democrats of today are nothing like the Democrats of JFK's time. Obama's message is radically different from JFK's message.
On the other hand the conservative "extremists" of today are exactly like the GOP of Reagan's time. Reagan wanted low taxes and small government, and the so-called "extremists" today are advocating for low taxes and small government.
What's changed is the culture. That means the GOP does indeed have a messaging problem. They have failed to present a compelling case against the welfare state. When Reagan in 1980 said that small government was good, people believed him. When a Republican today says that small government is good, people don't believe it. That's a messaging problem.
I took a semester off of college to volunteer full time on the Reagan campaign. You couldn't be more wrong. When Reagan republicans talked about smaller government and lower taxes, you have to remember that the top marginal tax rate was around 70 or 80% when Reagan took office in 1980. There absolutely was republican support for common sense social welfare programs at that time. The democrats were very liberal. The democratic leadership has moved to the center since then, and the R party has moved further and further to the right, to the point where Reagan wouldn't recognize them as republicans anymore. I'm all about smaller government, but not NO government or total corporate welfare policies when it comes to economic issues, and big ginormous intrusive government when it comes to social issues. This isn't a problem with the message--even moderate conservatives like me think the R party has gone off the deep end. People don't support the party's proposals anymore, because they ARE extreme. The sooner the R party figures that out, the sooner they'll stop losing the common sense conservatives.
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