EdinVA, you're brave to step into the middle of this particular "purity" thread with some common sense. You and the idea that we can only stop this Socialist takeover with an appeal to AT LEAST a majority of American voters will be met with derision and disdain. For the folks in this particular circle-pull, what matters is winning a majority on the Right end of the spectrum and using it to squash other conservatives who dare dissent with them on certain issues...and so, you're dissent from that jihad will not be tolerated in this little universe.
So their idea is to appeal exclusively to 51% of the 50% or so of American who are right of center politically. Their math stops here...at the point in which they have roughly 25% support...but heck, at least its "pure" support...no squishy moderate conservatives or dare say...libertarians or independents. The Horror!
Of course, with their 25% of Americans they expect to stop the Left...the rising Marxist and totalitarianist revolution that is now...quite literally...knocking at our doors and burning down our institutions.
Those of us with common sense on the Right believe we need to broaden our appeal and win over AT THE VERY LEAST a majority of American voters...we seek to take a conservative message to more than half of Americans and give THEM a tool and a reason to oppose this Socialist nightmare.
You, EdinVA, are 100% correct in your views expressed in this thread...but there is no breaking through to the "puritans". They prefer to let the country burn...believing this will somehow turn their fellow Conservatives and other Americans towards their particular brand of puritanism. An historically absurd, politically inept, and anti-common sensical notion to be sure...but it is their religion nonetheless. And if one thing in history stands out...it is that you cannot dissuade fanatics from their jihad.
Bullcrap. Why is it that liberal cater to their base, and Republican moderates try to stifle theirs? Ever necessary to pull further and further left, always suggesting that conservatism is not enough.
Well bullcrap. Christians ALONE are the biggest voting bloc in the country. Well over 60% of the country identifies as Christian and Conservative That's your Christian Right, which is capable of generating well into 60m votes all by themselves...
If you get the whole Christian right, you are going to win. But you need to back ALL their principles to get them all.
The same goes for the civil-libertarian Right, FAR outstripping any other ideology in the west midwest, and desert southwest. If you are not FOR that rugged individualism and localized form of government, along with Christianity, you will not succeed in the West. And again, ALL their principles matter to them.
Fiscal Conservatism, the very foundation of Main Street everywhere, brings businesses. And there ain't anybody anywhere that ain't sat at the kitchen table to balance their checkbook. Do you think it gets past mom and pop Business or Joe and Jane Sixpack that this government is spending us into oblivion? Again, full-throated fiscal Conservatism in all their principles is what they will hear.
And without understanding the oathkeepers and the price of their blood, to include revering the honor of Southern warriors, you will not get far with the military...
The price of saving America is Conservatism, and nothing else will do. Continue preaching discord. Continue your pyrrhic 'victories', so shallow as to barely squeak over the line against what is probably the most unwanted Democrat of all time. Or you can go back to what works. Conservatism. That is what brings the factions together. That is when the clarion call will be heeded.
