What About The Brand?

[Divinity]

You can be intelligent in some ways, and still be stupid in others.

See: Ben Carson.

[Whateverist]

As I've been watching the slow moving trainwreck that is american politics, I've started to ask a question that's popping up front and center now that midterms are getting close.  Is conservatism dead?  Has the message that the republican party spent decades crafting...regardless of it's truth, been completely shitcanned?  

How will the republican party run on a law and order ticket going forward?

How will the republican party run on a fiscal conservative platform going forward?

How will the republican party run a morality and ethics campaign going forward?

How will the republican party expand it's base with minorities and women going forward?

How will the republican party cast itself as the party of the middle class going forward?

How will the republican party brand itself as the party of small business going forward?

How will the republican party be the cheerleaders for free markets going forward?  

How will the republican party insist that it is the party of american idealism and patriotism going forward?



I'm not asking, in any of the above..if they were ever -true- to any of their campaign rhetoric, I'm asking how a candidate will be able to make a compelling case for any of the above from within the rapidly deteriorating framework that was the GOP?  I've been wondering this since Bush the Younger, and it's only become more pronounced in the interim..the final straw on so many fronts being this past year.   Where is the opposition to the erosion of all of the time, and labor, and money in messaging?


In short..where are the conservatives?

My best guess is they will do all those things shamelessly in the smug confidence that their low information base won't realize the inconsistency anyhow.

[The Grand Nudger]

@Div
However dumb the man may be,  as a primary candidate, he was closer to the core conservative message on those items I listed than what we've seen since.

@Whatevs
I understand that, but I was hoping to steer this thread more towards the principled stand for those items listed and who was still making it...rather than a list of all of the ways that message is used to subvert or take advantage of whatever portion of the base wants those things to be true of the republican party.

We've got plenty of threads about craven assholes shamelessly fleecing the sheep. This one aint about them..or..at least, I hope there's still an alternative to that.

[Whateverist]

As I've been watching the slow moving trainwreck that is american politics, I've started to ask a question that's popping up front and center now that midterms are getting close.  Is conservatism dead?  Has the message that the republican party spent decades crafting...regardless of it's truth, been completely shitcanned?  

How will the republican party run on a law and order ticket going forward?

How will the republican party run on a fiscal conservative platform going forward?

How will the republican party run a morality and ethics campaign going forward?

How will the republican party expand it's base with minorities and women going forward?

How will the republican party cast itself as the party of the middle class going forward?

How will the republican party brand itself as the party of small business going forward?

How will the republican party be the cheerleaders for free markets going forward?  

How will the republican party insist that it is the party of american idealism and patriotism going forward?



I'm not asking, in any of the above..if they were ever -true- to any of their campaign rhetoric, I'm asking how a candidate will be able to make a compelling case for any of the above from within the rapidly deteriorating framework that was the GOP?  I've been wondering this since Bush the Younger, and it's only become more pronounced in the interim..the final straw on so many fronts being this past year.   Where is the opposition to the erosion of all of the time, and labor, and money in messaging?


In short..where are the conservatives?

Ho hum. Subjective horse shit.

Exhibit A: Yokels will characterize the inconsistencies as subjective horse shit.

[The Grand Nudger]

I write him off as a person who's pleased with the way the worm has turned.  So, not anyone I'm posing the question to anyway.

[A Theist]

Ho hum. Subjective horse shit.

Exhibit A: Yokels will characterize the inconsistencies as subjective horse shit.

Exhibit B: Rubes will embrace subjective horse shit as their anti GOP narrative.

[The Grand Nudger]

For clarity, did you not realize that I was asking what a pro-gop platform or candidate looked like these days..or, conversely, whether that particular vision of the gop..which it worked so long to cultivate, was now doa?

[Wyrd of Gawd]

You can be intelligent in some ways, and still be stupid in others.

See: Ben Carson.

Ben Carson isn't stupid.  He's an opportunist who used to the system to his advantage.  There was no room for him in the Dem gang so he took advantage of an opportunity in the Repub gang.  That's being clever if you want to get ahead in politics and get a piece of the pie.

[The Grand Nudger]

You could probably say the same about the current president.  In any case, going back to primaries the entire republican establishment was aligned against what they saw as a clown that would damage the party and country.  Even after he won the nomination many people who voted for him considered him the "lesser of two evils"..... again clearly indicating a rift between his platform and candidacy and the long running establishment message.  

So, who are the establishment republicans, where are they running, and how are they distancing themselves from whatever rift trump as a candidate and trumpism as an ideology presented then and now?

[Wyrd of Gawd]

You could probably say the same about the current president.  In any case, going back to primaries the entire republican establishment was aligned against what they saw as a clown that would damage the party and country.  Even after he won the nomination many people who voted for him considered him the "lesser of two evils"..... again clearly indicating a rift between his platform and candidacy and the long running establishment message.  

So, who are the establishment republicans, where are they running, and how are they distancing themselves from whatever rift trump as a candidate and trumpism as an ideology presented then and now?

People voted for Trump because he offered solutions to a couple of main issues that most voters are concerned about.  And he was more appealing to the voters in the Rust Belt States than Lying Crooked Hillary was.  That gave him the margin of victory.  None of the other Repub candidates addressed the issues that the voters were concerned about so they all lost to him.  Trump may not be a real Repub but that's not what the voters in 30 States are concerned about.