Very similar to the California R Party: when conservatives are nominated for statewide offices, the Mo-o-o-o-ooooooooderates pick up their toys (= $$$) and go home; when a Mo-o-o-o-ooooooooderate gets nominated, they spend almost as much time with, "I am not one of those conservatives," messaging as actually disagreeing with their Dem opponent. Until Mo-o-o-o-ooooooooderates get over their hatred for conservatives the R Party will not climb out of irrelevancy in California politics.
I think you have it backwards.
I brought up this point because in Kansas you had hard line conservatives (one in particular) who said "We don't need them. They need us". My posting of the history of the Governor says that wasn't true and it still isn't. They have a democratic governor. She's not a crazy woman like Quincy which is why she'll be there for another term.
Instead of asking what they are doing wrong, conservatives there (of which I was one) tended to blame everything else but themselves.
Well, it's often the conservatives who say "my way or the highway" and you get what Kansas (and Arizona) got.....democratic governors.
We don't have to win on every issue. Our message of Liberty, self-direction, and decentralization is a winning message. Many moderates like much of that and they don't vote for democrats lightly. But when they are made to feel they are in a war with the gascan rhetoric that whackjobs on the right spew.....they decide a democrat in office is better.
In Kansas, every political meeting I attended spent way to much time on abortion. And it was the defining issue for many. It really did get boring.
We just could not leave it alone.
And so taxes, other liberties, education, and tons of other things suffered because we just could not get used to the idea of not talking about it ALL THE TIME.
