http://theweek.com/articles/578563/why-scott-walkers-failure-such-tremendous-blow-conservativesWhy Scott Walker's failure is such a tremendous blow to conservatives
W. James Antle III
The conservative movement is now back to square one, at least in the 2016 presidential race.
That isn't to say that the constellation of ideas surrounding writers like William F. Buckley Jr. and magazines like National Review hasn't succeeded in moving the Republican Party to the right. They most definitely have. Consider that the supposed "liberals" seeking the GOP's nomination in the last two presidential cycles were Jon Huntsman, a pro-life, anti-gun-control supporter of Paul Ryan's budget plan, and John Kasich, author of the last balanced federal budget. But despite this clear shift right, when a very conservative lawmaker can still be viewed as too liberal by many true believers on the right, conservatives' success in getting one of their own nominated has been limited to exactly two people: Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan.
Scott Walker represented the best chance to nominate a movement conservative for president since Reagan. The Republican establishment's power peaked under George W. Bush, whose strong support from fellow evangelicals effectively prevented a serious challenger to his right. Buckley described Bush 43 as "conservative but not a conservative."
Walker is a conservative. He's a Reagan-quoting, union-fighting, tax-and-budget-cutting, right-to-work-supporting product of the Goldwater-Reagan GOP, not the party Jeb and George W. Bush's father hailed from. He also had something no other conservative running for the GOP presidential nomination had: a resume as a two-term governor of a state that was far from monolithically Republican.
The party establishment has become weak, at least at the presidential level. In 2008, Rudy Giuliani imploded after spending a year at the top of national Republican polls. John McCain's campaign nearly went broke. In 2012, Mitt Romney struggled such a long time against challengers with little money or organization that the party decided to try to shorten the primary process.
Yes, McCain and Romney ultimately won. But if either Fred Thompson or Rick Perry had been up to the challenge, the establishment favorite could have been beaten. Romney at various points trailed a House backbencher and a former pizza company CEO. McCain actually received fewer votes than Mike Huckabee, Romney, and Ron Paul combined.
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