Christian Right Wants Unity Candidate.  Again. 

Concerned that they’ll end up with Jeb Bush as the Republican presidential candidate, Christian right leaders are straining mightily to get everyone to rally around a single candidate in the GOP clown car to unite behind and push to a glorious victory for Jesus (Peace Be Upon Him). 

Fearing that Republicans will ultimately nominate an establishment presidential candidate like Jeb Bush, leaders of the nation’s Christian right have mounted an ambitious effort to coalesce their support behind a single social-conservative contender months before the first primary votes are cast. 

In secret straw polls and exclusive meetings from Iowa to California, the leaders are weighing the relative appeal and liabilities of potential standard-bearers like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and former Govs.  Rick Perry of Texas and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas. 

“There’s a shared desire to come behind a candidate,” said Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, a national lobbying group that opposes abortion and equal rights for gays. 

“It would be early for a group of leaders to come out for a candidate, but not too early for the conversations to begin,” he said…

The efforts to coalesce behind an alternative candidate — in frequent calls, teleconferences and meetings involving a range of organizations, many of them with overlapping memberships — are premised on two articles of conservative faith: Republicans did not win the White House in the past two elections because their nominees were too moderate and failed to excite the party’s base.  And a conservative alternative failed to win the nomination each time because voters did not unite behind a single champion in the primary fight. 

This is, in fact, a repeat from 2012.  And 2008.  They said exactly the same thing about Mitt Romney and John McCain and held exactly the same conference calls and made exactly the same speeches about the need to pick a single candidate and get behind them.  Guess what?  Didn’t happen.  Isn’t going to happen this time either.  Why?  Because they are dealing with ideological purists, for whom a single misstatement or misstep is seen as betrayal. 

Who are they going to unite behind?  Ben Carson looked like a very plausible candidate.  He’s been tossing them red meat for months now.  But then he walked back his dumb statement about prisons proving homosexuality is a choice and now Bryan Fischer says he won’t support him and Matt Barber says he’s “dead to me.”  Mike Huckabee?  He supported Common Core, so he’s out.  Rick Santorum?  They couldn’t coalesce behind him last time.  Nope, they’re going to split their allegiance because that is inevitable. 

The far bigger impediment that Mike Huckabee faces is the fierce antipathy directed towards him by more secular conservatives.  Rush Limbaugh led the charge in 2008; Mr. Limbaugh defamed Mr. Huckabee nearly as badly as he does non-conservatives. 

One expressed reason for all the hate was Gov. Huckabee raising taxes when gov.  Interestingly, I don’t see the anti-tax crowd making much noise over the past few years.  But conservative Christians would do well to insure that whoever they rally around, if they can, that someone can pander to the party’s financial constituents.  This is one skill George W. Bush was actually competent in performing where Rick Santorum failed miserably in his last two runs. 

dingojack

I wonder what it would take? 

Perhaps they need to force the whole gaggle to watch Highlander (or Beyond Thunderdome, Fight Club and etc.). 

Dingo

Pierce R. Butler

“There’s a shared desire to come behind a candidate,” said Tony Perkins…

The entendres just write themselves.  Thanks, Tony! 

http://en.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/User:Modusoperandi Modusoperandi

Ben Carson looked like a very plausible candidate.  He’s been tossing them red meat for months now.  But then he walked back his dumb statement about prisons proving homosexuality is a choice and now Bryan Fischer says he won’t support him and Matt Barber says he’s “dead to me.” 

And also he has a characteristic that costs him appeal with part of the Base.  That’s right, I’m saying it.  No, I’m not going to apologize.  He has glasses.  There.  I said it. 

dingojack

Pierce R. Butler –

Carry On Politicking starring Tony Perkins as the Leering Dirty Old Man…

Dingo

raven

The last time, the fundies were so unified, they had a variety of xian Darth Vader class clowns to pick from.  They were so holy that three of them were picked by god, which we know because they told us themselves. 

And the GOP ended up nominating a nonxian Reptilian Shapeshifter. 

Tony Perkins and James Dobson were some of the people behind picking Sarah Palin as VP.  That didn’t work so well either. 

http://nwrickert.wordpress.com/ Neil Rickert

Go Christians. 

Pick your unity candidate, so that we can have a one-on-one battle between the theocrats and the traditional Republicans. 

Many Democrats will be cheering from the sidelines. 

http://www.ranum.com Marcus Ranum

Artor:

I found some video of the Xian coalition debating their candidates. 

Look at them fighting over the hand-outs.  But I’m sure they’d tell you they earned it all by dint of their hard working pirahnahood. 

whheydt

I have no doubt that they’ll be able to unite in supporting a single candidate…just as soon as they succeed in uniting all their disparate churches into a single one. 

http://www.ranum.com Marcus Ranum

Perhaps they need to force the whole gaggle to watch Highlander (or Beyond Thunderdome, Fight Club and etc.). 

The first rule of Highlander Club is nobody knows about Highlander Club because nobody talks about it, and when they do, most Americans can’t parse the accent. 

raven

Fearing that Republicans will ultimately nominate an establishment presidential candidate like Jeb Bush,..

Jeb Bush is the one who can fake being a normal person the longest.  It’s whole minutes. 

1.  Many are going to be horrified by another Bush.  There are a lot of bad memories about dead friends and relatives from the wars, the housing crash, the Great Recession, sky high unemployments, and dead 401(K) plans and IRA’s. 

I’m one.  No one I knew well lost their home but a few people came close. 

2.  And the second place finish in the Pretend to be Normal contest is Rand Paul.  He’s a scary one also.  Rand Paul is wearing a normal person mask abut 0.1 mm thick.  It slips occasionally. 

One gets the feeling, if you look away or turn your back, Rand will turn into a horror from beyond space and time with too many tentacles, and go for your juggler.  His father was the same way. 

3.  I originally was hoping for Romney as Theothuglican least likely to wreck the country.  The more of him we saw, the scarier he was.  This time, it looks like a good idea to assume they are equally specially malevolent in their own way and make contingency plans for survival, if any one them get elected president. 

colnago80

Re Michael Heath @ #3

Even worse from the point of view of fucktards like Limpdick is the reason why Huckabee raised taxes as governor.  It was to increase spending on education.  Actually, all in all, Huckabee wasn’t all that bad as Governor of Arkansas. 

dingojack

Raven – “One gets the feeling, if you look away or turn your back, Rand will turn into a horror from beyond space and time with too many tentacles, and go for your juggler. ” 

*Whew* – I don’t own a juggler, so I’m safe then. 

On the other hand – ‘jokers to the left of me, clowns to my right…’

:s Dingo

raven

Ron Paul: U.S. secession is already ‘happening’ | MSNBC

www.  msnbc.  com/rachel…/ron-paul-us-secession-already-happening

Feb 23, 2015 – Ron Paul’s (R-Texas) recent appearance at a pro-secession conference. …  I know I wouldn’t want to be blamed for some of what my relatives …

Ron Paul, the parent of the Rand clone, has been busy in retirement. 

1.  His hobby is breaking up the USA.  He is trying to get the South to seccede again.  Because that worked so well last time, I guess. 

2.  He claims it is working.  And that is a good thing. 

3.  Ron Paul is clearly an America hater.  And delusional.  And a kook.  This isn’t the only weird thing he has said. 

4.  Technically, it isn’t fair to assume the clone is like the parent.  But in Rand Paul’s case, there is a lot of evidence that he is.  The burden of proof is on him to show he isn’t.  He hasn’t done that. 

dan4

@5: So which one are you, Beavis or Butthead (“come behind a candidate, huh huh huh”)? 

http://www.ranum.com Marcus Ranum

His hobby is breaking up the USA

If it could be accomplished non-violently, that might be good for the world.  Not so good for the USA.  And, of course, given American’s horrible predilictions for violence, there’s no way it wouldn’t involve huge carnage. 

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1399822355 markmckee

The Republican party exists to meet the needs of the rich.  But there are not enough rich to win elections so they learned long ago to cultivate the crazies.  So they created a bunch of issues that they didn’t really care about in order to get votes and it worked. ( And when they had serious power in Washington in the early 2000s they made sure NOT to pass too many of their issues because then they might lose those voters for future elections.) 

Now those crazies are actually having some success in taking over their party.  And many of those crazies are not so much beholden to the rich.  Serves them right. 

raven

If it could be accomplished non-violently, that might be good for the world.  Not so good for the USA. 

1.  Yeah, I’ve thought that myself.  The west coast has little in common with the midwest except they keep moving here for jobs and to escape the subarctic winters and boredom. 

They have even less in common with Texas and the South. 

The USA wouldn’t just divide into North and South this time.  It would fragment into at least 4 or 5 nations.  Utah would become Zion, Texas Texas, the New Confederacy, the midwest, and the Northeast. 

I wouldn’t care one bit.  Except:

2.  Collapse isn’t all that great.  Quite frequently you end up with wars for generations as people sort themselves out.  We saw that with Yugoslavia.  We are still seeing that with the Soviet Union.  Right now the big problem is Ukraine versus Russia. 

Sometimes you get a Czechoslavia.  But not often. 

3.  I’m guessing the civil wars among the former US states would go nuclear.  The USA has close to half the world’s nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors, weapon plants, and the knowledge to make nukes are widely dispersed.  As the fundie xians say, with god all things are possible.  They differ from ISIS right now only in how many heavy weapons they have. 

At the very least there would be massive refugee problems as people flee from one area they hate to another they want to live in.  California could get rid of Darryl Issa and the Birchers, while nonwhites, gays, and nonxians flee the New Confederacy. 

doublereed

I thought they *did* decide on Rick Santorum in 2012.  He just didn’t win. 

Who Cares

@raven(#21):

It isn’t so much Ukraine against Russia as a proxy war (started by a coup instigated by the US and the EU) between the west part of the Ukraine supported by the US, the EU wants peace not war at this point so they are out, versus the east part of the Ukraine supported by Russia. 

The problem is that the ‘Christian Conservatives’ have forgotten just what a diverse group they actually are.  They agree (in general) to certain principles that allow them to work together (kinda), but when it comes to out-and-out politics they’ll never find a candidate that satisfies ALL of their various factions – and they’ve been advancing a “No Compromise!”  narrative for decades. 

ricko

Raven said “1.  Yeah, I’ve thought that myself.  The west coast has little in common with the midwest except they keep moving here for jobs and to escape the subarctic winters and boredom.” 

This is funny.  I’m almost laughing.  I’ll need to make sure my son in Los Angeles knows this.  He may want to come back to Wauwatosa, WI and help us get rid of Gov. Walker. 

http://www.pandasthumb.org Area Man

Republicans did not win the White House in the past two elections because their nominees were too moderate and failed to excite the party’s base. 

Do they think that if “the base” gets sufficiently excited that they’re entitled to extra votes, or that liberals and moderates get fewer? 

whheydt

Re: Area Man @ #27…

Yeah…nominate one of the raving lunatics the fundies favor and watch just excited “the base” gets.  That is, the Democratic base in order to stop the fundies choice. 

lorn

Ideological purity is such touchy issue.  Its like what they said about virginity being like a balloon, ‘one prick, and its gone’. 

StevoR

“There’s a shared desire to come behind a candidate, ..”

So .. that’s gotta mean its gunna be Stinky ole Frothymix then yeah? 

http://motherwell.livejournal.com/ Raging Bee

The main reason it will never happen, is that: a) the “Christian Right” are nothing but childish purists who have had just enough successes to become spoiled brats, and are probably unable to think straight; and b) the PoG “establishment” all know the Ciristianists will vote Republican no matter who they nominate, because they hate liberals more than they love any specific alternative candidate or policy — all they have to do is push all the right fear and hate buttons to get the rubes to the polls, and none of the “unity candidate” talk means anything. 

busterggi

“This is, in fact, a repeat from 2012.  And 2008. ”  And earlier, they’re authoritarians and they’re going to ultimately vote for whatever (and it could be a goat) has an R next to its name. 

http://festeringscabofrealityblogspot.com fifthdentist

In related news, the Judean People’s Front and People’s Front of Judea are coordinating plans for a unified effort to kidnap Pilate’s wife, Incontinentia. 

http://festeringscabofrealityblogspot.com fifthdentist

Crud, just as I hit post I remembered that Incontinentia is Biggus Dickus’ wife. 

What makes their “If our candidate had been a real conservative we would have won” claim so bizarre is that the Republican vote turnout didn’t go down in ’08 or ’12, it actually went up and broke the previous record set in ’04 by Dubya.  They are so completely divorced from reality they honestly seem to believe that there is a massive block of conservatives who don’t hate Obama enough to go out and vote. 

’04: 59 Million

’08: 60 Million

’12: 61 Million

Raven@20

The west coast has little in common with the midwest except they keep moving here for jobs and to escape the subarctic winters and boredom. 

You might want to rethink that Raven.  Large sections of the Midwest have a lot in common with the “left coast” politically speaking.  The current governor of Minnesota has policies rather similar to those one would expect in California.  Madison is about as liberal as Berkley.  Milwaukee and Chicago politically have more in common with western liberal cities than they do the more conservative stretches of their own states.  Wisconsin hasn’t gone to a Republican presidential candidate since ’84 (Cali went to Reagan that year as well, and by a larger margin).  In addition, Minnesota, Illinois, and Michigan went to the Democratic candidate in the last five straight presidential elections.