Rant: Ron Paul/Rand Paul- 2016 and this previous election.

[Daldolma]

Originally Posted by XgrimX [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I think we can all agree there is a POSSIBILITY he could have been a better economy. I still think he would have won hands down over Romney just because Obama has a terrible record to run on for the last 4 years. But the point I was making more was the fact that the GOP screwed Ron Paul therefore if they would have just accepted him gave him speaking slots etc. they would have had the 4-5% of the independent vote that would have put them over the top to beat Obama this past election. Just wondering if anyone thought the same I do on the mistake by the GOP/RNC

Good discussions though

I say this as respectfully as possible, but you're being delusional. Romney did awesome with independent voters. He did awesome with white voters. He did as well as you could have possibly expected in those demographics. He lost because he got destroyed by the Latino, black, and gay votes, and alienated single women. Ron Paul doesn't help with those demographics -- he hurts. And Ron Paul cannot be put in a central position within the party because there is entirely too much dirt on him. The minute he starts seriously stumping for a presidential candidate is the minute national news agencies start talking about his newsletters, which referred to MLK Jr as a "pro-communist philanderer" and MLK Day as "Hate Whitey Day". And that's seriously just the tip of the iceberg. It's not a mistake that the Republican leadership's approach to Ron Paul has been "thanks but no thanks".

The reason the Republicans lost is because their campaign strategy is a thing of the past. You cannot win on white voters anymore. You cannot win by taking average Joes and independents. You absolutely must be competitive within the Latino and black voter blocs to have a shot. You don't have to win them, but you can't lose them by 40+ points. Especially not when you're strategically ceding the gay vote.

There wasn't a single serious candidate for the Republican nomination that had any shot in the general election. They were all going to lose 90+% of the black vote, 65%+ of the Latino vote, and 60+% of the gay vote. You can't win like that. Not anymore.