Finally someone writing some sense. These ideological purity tests are killing the GOP and turning off so many people, especially we conservatives ourselves,that it´s goten out of control.

* gotten

Thanks for posting, OP and what #1 said. IMO, there will never be "unity" in the GOP until some pundits and others stop listening to people like Pat Caddell, who while entertaining in a lot of respects is hardly one to demonize consultants while, as the writer said, Cadddell ran one of the most ineffective and disastrous campaigns in history. Lord of the Flies comes to mind when I hear fellow Conservatives destroy candidates because they are not 100% pure. What has happened to the GOP?

I´m reminded of the French Revolution. Sure, a whole bunch of those royals and higher-ups required beheading, but many good people were caught in the whirlwind.

Few conservatives can agree on what we want and expect out of our representatives or wanna-be representatives, so the conservative purity tests mean varying things and are applied differently from one to another. We better firm up the criteria before the 2014 campaigns begin or we´ll end up beheading some good ones by mistake.

Some of these so called purists are putting the taliban to shame.

Ugly ugly ugly

Yes, if we could just get McCain a decent running mate, the next election is ours.

Anyone named Romney? No, there´s just one guy. He lost the primary to McPain in 2008 and then lost to Hussein in 2012 and the elites and RINO´s in the republican party backed him to the hilt.

We are losing our country and the majority of the guys in DC with an "R" on their shirts are playing some sort of sinister version of "good cop, bad cop" while the country burns. They´re on the same side and we know how this will end if we don´t put some people who understand and love the constitution in charge. Zero tolerance for those who do not.

#7, you can´t be seriously implying that Governor Romney doesn´t "understand and love the Constitution"? If more conservatives had joined all those "elites and RINO´s" on Election Day, he would be in the White House today, instead of the man who was elected (while the purists stayed away from the Republican nominee) and who trashes our Constitution on a daily basis.

Wahhhhh. Stop the shameful kvetching. Either the GOP gets back to core principles, or it continues to fade into obscurity and failure.

The so-called purge is happening because of failed plans, policies, and actions -- over a long period of time, nearly to the destruction of the party Yet some are still so invested in the crumbling power structure that they hold their tatters around them and cry like mewling kittens.

Rove and others blew it. Big time. They and the establishment politicians and consultants had their time. Time to get on board or get out of the way.

There is true contempt for proles, they/we should shut up and listen to their betters who know how to win elections. Or not.

The old "purity" strawman again? Yawn......

glad to see the republican kool-aid drinkers have had their coffee and are rallying around this story. there is comfort in numbers.

did not see these folks posting yesterday about Cruz, Palin and other CPAC stories.

strange.

but i am sure they have a good explanation for how the repugs were not involved in the $17 trillion in debt, and how they have been so effective in appointing supreme court justices that protect us against killing unborn childrn and 0bamacare, and how they are fighting so haerd to keep marriage between a man and a women.

ya, the republican party is just chalked full of courage and conviction.

GOP = Whigs of the 21st centuy.

It works for the democrats. Just sayin.

I admit I didn´t read the article but the first paragraph sure sounds like a whine to me.

It started with the debates ...they trashed each other beyond repair. The time should have been spent on all the mishaps of the won. The conventions should have included the tea party & Rand Paul. Grow up & stop trashing each other & focus on winning... warts & all.

Simmer down. We may not agree on every single issue 100% but at least admit that we are the closest possible ALLIES. Does it make sense to shoot your own allies?
Think of a combat situation because we ARE in a war. Why would anyone want to fire on on an ally in the trenches instead of the common enemy?

My fellow Conservatives are just a little tired of being sold out by the Folks who are supposed to be on our side. There is such a thing as a RINO and they are not my friend. CPAC can invite who they want. RINO´s would shoot dead a real Conservative in their next primary and claim for themselves they have CPAC support. It is not Conservatives who have shot themselves in the foot, it is those so called Republicans who reached across the aisle so many times that we are $17 Trillion in the hole and getting deeper and many Americans feel there ain´t a dimes worth of difference between the parties. I have defended Republicans against this charge for years, but it gets harder and harder all the time.

What´s Rick Moran talking about? None of his friends have been purged and never will be. As the man on the radio at 12N has said many times, the establishment´s #1 enemy is conservatives, not democrats, and and they´ll fight more viciously to defeat a conservative than they will to defeat a dem. Moran himself has said he considers grassroots people to be anti-science Luddites with dirty fingernails, and that the establishment wouldn´t want them involved with the party. Mitt Romney is on record saying he wouldn´t light his hair on fire for the base, that the base was very excitable, that he could easily make his ratings go up if he wanted to please them. Reported 2/28/12, he said he´d rather lose than try to please the base. And he did. By the time George Bush #2 left in 2008 the GOP was almost non-existent. In Nov. 2010 the conservative base gave the GOP House a historic gift they didn´t deserve and which they tried to stifle and co-opt from day 1. The enormous gift was expressly to stop funding ObamaCare but Boehner wouldn´t even let the subject come to the floor, kept it ´stuck´ in a committee. Pat Caddell was 100% right, others have said the same thing, although it´s long been quite out in the open anyway. Rick Moran fits in perfectly with the establishment.

The marketplace of ideas can get a tad rowdy but at least we openly discuss our various notions of proper governance.

The left is devious and keeps it´s true agenda hidden while perfecting the black arts of propaganda, cultural subdivision and election fraud.

Conservatism is growing on local and state levels and will control the Fed after the collapse/civil war.

Conservatives in this country are beaten about the head by the ´what if syndrome´ What if we had done this rather than that. Chosen him rather than them? What if our Forefathers had been so undecided? Make a decision, take a stand for something and stand in your belief and principles. No more looking back. Let´s look to the future and beyond. No matter what we do we just do NOT get a ´do over´ Learn, people, learn from our mistakes.

Yeah, I don´t much care. Purge me if you wish. Romney/Ryan was my dream team for the problems we face as a nation right now. I backed them to the hilt.
As for the rest, I live in a very red state and all politics is local anyway. I´ll be fine.
If "setting your hair on fire" is a prerequisite, I´ll sit this one out. Y´all have fun.

No one has a right to a senate or congressional seat. I would like to see a lot of new conservative faces in many of them.

Romney loved the Constitution. I never denied his patriotism. That was never the point about our GOP establishment candidates. The point is this: Do they love it ENOUGH to fight (no matter the cost) as our forefathers did to save us from socialism? Evidently not. That is all most of us are saying. We conservatives did it the establishment´s way last two election cycles. We lost.

It is time for conservatives to simply realize that the world is not going to be a good place ever again in their lifetimes. Democracies deteriorate into dictatorships after about 200 years. It would appear we will as well.
It is time to quit wasting energy on politics you can´t change and put your efforts into the aspects of your life you can change.

Our friend above did indeed back Romney/Ryan to the hilt, and we lost. Note the collective pronoun. I had severe reservations about Romney the politician and expressed them throughout the primary. Once Romney was nominated, I invoked the Buckley Rule and did what I could to help. And we lost.

So here´s the deal: We´re going to have a long, and hopefully civil, debate about who and what for 2016. While I sympathize with the bitterness of those who felt Romney´s avoidable defeat was imposed on them by the GOP, and I understand the anger of Romney supporters who felt we didn´t do enough to help him, America is sinking fast and we are all in the same boat. We are all--all of us--drowning in debt.

I hope we run strong conservative candidates in 2016. I hope my guy or gal gets the nomination. And whatever happens, hope we all agree to vote for the most conservative candidate who can win, which means all hands on deck after the nomination--even if your guy/gal lost. America will not be saved by throwing each other overboard, and it will not saved by abandoning ship.

There comes a time when we all need to grab an oar and stop paddling each other.

Tell you what, when liberal lites, moderates, RINOS, blue-bloods et al, stop siding with democrats over conservatism we will stop the purge.

And for a reminder, the following are people you backed: Ford, Bush, Dole, McCain and Romney, Schwarzenegger, Specter, Christ, Brown and many others. How did that work out for you?

I for one am tired of being told what to do and think by political journalists that have an agenda to maintain status quo. Term Limits would be my dream come true but since not in foreseeable future than vote these power hungry suckers out of office. That means grassroots campaigns and very very localized resistance to DC.
"All politics is local" Tip O´Neill, wrong party but very wise man.

Had I known that Christ was a RINO I never would have voted for Him.

Romney nearly won with almost half of the votes counted. If the dems´ usual voter shenanigans weren´t a factor, maybe he would have. Few today would deny that he was the better candidate in that election and, considering 0bama´s negative ratings which have continued to sink fast after his re-election, most would rather that Romney was in the WH right now. But it is what it is.

The GOP is doing great in state elections with avowed conservative candidates, so the question is, how will the party expand that affermation right into the WH once again? Winning GOP candidates get votes when they authentically represent conservative Americans on the major issues critical to the USA. They keep their oaths of office. Authentic conservative candidates don´t, ´run right but govern left!!!!´

Unfortunately, that political flip/flop strategy has seemed to be the routine pathetic advice given to GOP Presidential candidates by that party´s, ´expert political advisors,´ which refuse to simply listen to the American people. Their disconnect looses elections.

The Won and his group are loving this stuff.

Yes, indeed, #26. You may be sure I will back any future candidates that you (in the collective, of course) may put forth with the same exact measure with which you backed mine.
I may have lost my country to the liberals but I shan´t forget who gave them the keys to the Oval Office.
Let the purging games begin....

I agree #22, R&R would have been better leaders than campaigners, isn´t that real world experience important? I say that we let the purists run the show for a while through 2016. Just tell me who to show up to vote for, I promise I won´t write in any bogus names or third party candidates. lets go