So far the Republican party is fighting over which one of them is the most conservative (this is an outgrowth of them getting the wrong message from the 2006 election). The conventional beltway wisdom is that it’s Democrats who have to move away from the base come election time (that’s not really true) but how is the eventual Republican nominee to trick America into voting for him as a mainstream candidate after months of out-conservative-ing each other?
No problem. Let’s encourage them to become even MORE “Conservative”!!
The candidates will then be fighting over … lesseee… 28& of the electorate?
The National Elections will no longer be 50-50, but 70-30 Dem wins come next November.
“…how is the eventual Republican nominee to trick America into voting for him as a mainstream candidate after months of out-conservative-ing each other?”
That’s actually something I find extremely intriguing: the qualities that win a general election are often not the same ones that win a primary, and primary voters find themselves trying to vote for someone who has the best set of qualities they support without going too far off to the fringe. In game theory this is called “minimaxing” and if I ever go back to school I think it would make a great topic to write a thesis on.