Conservative Republicans are going to have to face it: they’re addicted to “frothing crazy people running for president” and don’t know or care that it hurts their nominee’s chances in the general election. So went the diagnosis from Daily Kos blogger Hunter in a Monday post.
Hunter argued that GOP base voters fixate on primary-and-caucus season because it’s their big opportunity to proselytize for hard-right candidates. “For many state parties, it's their Burning Man,” he wrote. “They would no more give up on rallying support for the Ben Carsons and the Michele Bachmanns and the Rick Santorums than they would give up on voting itself.”
From Hunter’s post (bolding added):
The party of divisive views…continues to be very alarmed that someone will bring those divisive views up during a presidential run, even though the party is now fairly certain that having frothing crazy people running for president is what doomed them the last time around. But they won't stop…
[From a news item:]
[Carson’s] unfiltered remarks are embraced by parts of the Republican base in inverse proportion to the fits of outrage they inspire on the left. “To the base who are looking for someone completely different to shake things up, that probably makes them more of a fan,” said Craig Robinson, a former political director of the Iowa Republican Party.
And if Barack Obama stubbed his toe on a cinder block, that cinder block would win the Iowa caucuses. Ben Carson fans are not complicated people.
This is shaping up to be an interesting primary season, at least from the standpoint of watching the Republican Party desperately try to euthanize primary season. I don't think they can do it. The Republican base—and I mean the frothy ones, the ones that show up in tricorner hats and demand the government get out of their Medicare—lives for these primaries. For many state parties, it's their Burning Man. They would no more give up on rallying support for the Ben Carsons and the Michele Bachmanns and the Rick Santorums than they would give up on voting itself.
[From a news item:]
“At some point the party will wake up from its hangover and pick someone they think can actually go through” a general election, said an experienced Republican strategist in Iowa who has worked with mainstream candidates…
See that, tea partiers? Even Iowa Republican strategists think your drunken louts are ruining things. Are you going to take that lying down, or are you going to buckle down, take another swig, find someone even crazier to vote for?
