Your Request for Surrender is Denied

Doug at Race42012 makes a stunningly good point:

I’ve noticed a desire among many moderates to ask social conservatives to moderate their influence on the party voluntarily. I’m not sure if this is a rhetorical tool or if some moderates are seriously making this request of social conservatives.

Politics doesn’t work that way in America. Here is the rule of American politics:

If you can’t take it, don’t expect me to give it away.

If you rely on socially conservative votes to win, you have to deal with them on their own terms.

You’re not going to change that relationship unilaterally, unless you demonstrate you can win without them. As no modern Republican Presidential candidate has done this, we remain with our current intra-party political structure.

Social conservatives ask for some level of trust on social issues and candidates establish trust or see social conservatives hold back support.

Moderates who really want to change that have a very simple path (but not an easy one). You need to find a candidate who believes as you do. You need to nominate that candidate and have him win without reaching out to social conservatives on their own terms.

If you do that then you’ve taken what you wanted. That is the only way you’re going to get it in American politics.

Exactly, Rockefeller Republicans didn’t decide one day that it would be better for the party if they no longer ran things. It happened through a lot of hard work. I’ve not seen them being willing to do that hard work. Only expect others to surrender to you.

Also, an interesting question raised by Michael Sparxx:

“Why do the Moderates in the GOP establishment call for unity AFTER kneecapping Conservatives?” — Me