# "Romney not conservative enough" **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 8, 2012, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308 "2012-11-08T00:32:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/1 "2012-11-08T00:32:43Z")
Has anyone on the Right come out and said that yet? ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/2 "2012-11-08T00:34:55Z")
I just saw a Tea Party leader say exactly that on CNN. > **[Tea Party Slams Mitt Romney as 'Weak Moderate Candidate' Hand-Picked by...](https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2012/11/07/tea-party-slams-mitt-romney-as-weak-moderate-candidate-hand-picked-by-mushy-middle-gop)** > > The Tea Party Patriots say America deserved a conservative candidate who wanted to fight. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/3 "2012-11-08T00:35:43Z")
If they do, Lindsey Graham will [lose his shit](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/05/1155900/-Lindsey-Graham-says-he-ll-go-nuts-if-GOPers-say-Romney-lost-because-he-wasn-t-conservative-enough?detail=hide) completely. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/4 "2012-11-08T00:38:33Z")
They’ve been saying it since the primaries started, and yes, they’ll go that route again. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/5 "2012-11-08T00:40:22Z")
Yup, I’ve been hearing it on Fox News all day today. Also, it’s the fault of Sandy, the 'spics, same-day voter registration, single women, college kids, blacks, media bias, wedge issues…blah blah blah. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/6 "2012-11-08T00:51:32Z")
Compare Romney’s polling after the primaries to his polling leading up to the election, and try to explain why being more conservative would have been the better strategy. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/7 "2012-11-08T00:53:01Z")
**MOID** - I never said the strategy would work. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/8 "2012-11-08T00:55:52Z")
I know, I wasn’t saying _you_ were making that argument. I was speaking rhetorically. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/9 "2012-11-08T01:14:51Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > If they do, Lindsey Graham will [lose his shit](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/05/1155900/-Lindsey-Graham-says-he-ll-go-nuts-if-GOPers-say-Romney-lost-because-he-wasn-t-conservative-enough?detail=hide) completely. Lindsay Graham a RINO in 3…2… ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/10 "2012-11-08T01:28:43Z")
My fellow Democrats, It is time to be magnanimous in victory and allow our Republican brethren/sisteren to conduct their own soul-searching without our interference. Further, as the party of personal freedom and choice, it is incumbent on us to support their decision that Mitt was too liberal to win. Personally, I vow to encourage my Republican friends to look at their current Republican office-holders and examine them carefully in the light of true conservatism. Anyone deemed “too moderate” should be primaried as quickly as possible with a [del]batshit insane[/del] true Conservative candidate. This is the only way for the Grand Old Party to show it’s true colors and frankly, the American people deserve no less. Sincerely, Zakalwe ---
**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/11 "2012-11-08T01:28:49Z")
I’m a RIRO right now (Republican in Registration Only). I’m a fiscal conservative, believe in small government and separation of Church and State. I’ve also heard the Romney wasn’t conservative enough crap. I hope they run with that. I really do. The GOP is nose down. I want them to strap Rove and Boehner to the nose, pull back hard on the flaps and punch the gas HARD. I’m talking Santorum with a gun strapped to his butt speechifying about how rape babies are God’s will and illegals should be self-deported at gun-point while we ship troops into Iran. I hope they ride that puppy into the dirt so hard and so fast in 2014 that the dust doesn’t settle for decades. I consider it a form or euthanasia for the reality resistant that have taken over and destroyed the name Republican. The idiots out there are NOT fiscal conservatives, they are NOT for small government and they are certainly NOT for the principles in any Christian Bible that I’ve ever read. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/12 "2012-11-08T13:49:23Z")
Slight tangent, **Enkel** , just to note that the problem with “small government” is that (currently) the real power doesn’t lie with the government, but with the corporations… and the corporations are huge. Only a strong and emowered government can keep them in check. The government is our only defense against corporate abuses, and even that’s not been very successful. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/13 "2012-11-08T14:07:40Z")
Yup, one of the main missions of the government in the modern world is to protect us from each other. It is therefore only natural that the people being thwarted in this feel that the government is “interfering” in their business. (Because IT IS) ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/14 "2012-11-08T14:30:49Z")
From [Republicans engage in soul-searching after Romney defeat](http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/07/usa-campaign-republicans-idUSL1E8M7IMN20121107): > [@](#): > > “Mitt Romney’s loss was the death rattle of the establishment GOP,” said Richard Viguerie, chairman of [ConservativeHQ.Com](http://ConservativeHQ.Com). “Far from signaling a rejection of the Tea Party or grassroots conservatives, the disaster of 2012 signals the beginning of the battle to take over the Republican Party and the opportunity to establish the GOP as the party of small-government constitutional conservatism.” From [Experts: Why Mitt Romney lost the election](http://newyork.newsday.com/news/nation/experts-why-mitt-romney-lost-the-election-1.4198598): > [@](#): > > minutes after major television networks called the race for Obama, Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator of Tea Party Patriots, sent an email to reporters blaming the loss on “a weak moderate candidate, hand-picked by the Beltway elites and country-club establishment wing of the Republican Party. The presidential loss is unequivocally on them.” From [Republicans descend into civil war as Tea Party movement vows to drive party further to the right](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/9662277/Republicans-descend-into-civil-war-as-Tea-Party-movement-vows-to-drive-party-further-to-the-right.html): > [@](#): > > [Red State’s Erick] Erickson also led a prompt Right-wing dismissal of suggestions that the Republicans should shift to the centre on economic or other social issues, saying instead that Mr Romney had been “pathetic at defining a real, Right-of-centre alternative” to Mr Obama. > > “Compromise? Like hell,” he said. “We’re going to keep fighting The next two years will set the vision of a more populist oriented conservatism”. From [http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Barack+Obama+begins+second+term+following+victory+over+Mitt+Romney/7509939/story.html](http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Barack+Obama+begins+second+term+following+victory+over+Mitt+Romney/7509939/story.html): > [@](#): > > Charles Krauthammer, a conservative political columnist at the Washington Post, minimized the significance of Romney’s loss, dismissing the former Massachusetts governor as merely a “transitional figure.” > > “He’s a northeastern liberal, and that’s not where we’re going,” Krauthammer said on Fox News. “That’s not where the future of the Republican party is.” ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/15 "2012-11-08T18:09:11Z")
> [@Enkel](#): > > The idiots out there are NOT fiscal conservatives, they are NOT for small government and they are certainly NOT for the principles in any Christian Bible that I’ve ever read. Yeah, your hope for the massive nose dive and explosion may be the country’s best hope (and I stress country, not just Republican party). Telling other people what to do in their bedrooms and doctor’s offices is not conservative, and prosecuting wars because they give old white men erections is not conservative nor small government. On the other hand, Democrats need a good opposition party. Chicago is a perfect example of one-party Democrat rule - the school system is horrible, the cops are corrupt, and taxes are ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/16 "2012-11-08T18:30:16Z")
Once again, the Republican party wants to double down on crazy. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/17 "2012-11-08T18:32:34Z")
This is all excellent news for John McCain. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/18 "2012-11-08T18:47:08Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > My fellow Democrats, > > It is time to be magnanimous in victory and allow our Republican brethren/sisteren to conduct their own soul-searching without our interference. Further, as the party of personal freedom and choice, it is incumbent on us to support their decision that Mitt was too liberal to win. Personally, I vow to encourage my Republican friends to look at their current Republican office-holders and examine them carefully in the light of true conservatism. Anyone deemed “too moderate” should be primaried as quickly as possible with a [del]batshit insane[/del] true Conservative candidate. This is the only way for the Grand Old Party to show it’s true colors and frankly, the American people deserve no less. > > Sincerely, > > Zakalwe In other words, “Please proceed, GOP”. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/19 "2012-11-08T18:56:10Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > They’ve been saying it since the primaries started, and yes, they’ll go that route again. There’s no “they”. Some will, some won’t. In general, the leaders of the right wing will. The leaders of the more moderate wing will argue the opposite. The question is what direction the middle takes. In general, Republicans and Democrats are part of the same human species, and many of the same rules apply to both. If you want to understand what happens on the Republican side, you can look at what Democrats do in similar circumstances. In most cases you will find the dynamic to be remarkably similar. [In fact, you can look at discussions of this issue on this very MB in the wake of Democratic electoral defeats and find the same battle being fought.] But again, that’s all if you actually want to understand what happens. If you just want to point and laugh at the crazies you can do that too. To each his own. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308/20 "2012-11-08T19:06:46Z")
Of course he was conservative enough! He was also liberal enough! And libertarian enough. Maybe not vegan enough. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-not-conservative-enough/640308.md?page=2)