Conservative activists face “a toss up” in November, either voting for Republican nominee Mitt Romney or voting for a more conservative candidate, a top Ron Paul supporter said today.
Carl Bunce, speaking from the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., cast doubt over how unified the Republican Party would really be coming out of the convention, saying Nevada Republicans especially haven’t been shown the respect that party leaders are demanding from them.
“They’re always talking about it [party unity] but they’ve never followed the process to create it,” Bunce said. “They demand respect but give none.”
Bunce said some members of Nevada’s delegation were bound and determined to vote for Paul, even though party rules compelled them to give the majority of Nevada’s votes to Romney. They were reacting to the infamous 2008 incident in which state party leaders shut down the Nevada convention rather than let a slate of Paul delegates be elected. Others were upset at rules changes proposed this week that would have given more control over who may serve as a delegate to party leaders rather than grassroots elections.
“We’re activists. We’re rebellious in a way,” Bunce said.
Bunce said conservatives were pleased with the party’s platform, but want to see signs that Romney will actually carry it out. (You can read the entire Republican platform for yourself here: 2012 Republican platform.)
Otherwise, Bunce said, conservatives will be searching for the right “protest vehicle,” to show their support for ideals embraced by Paul, including a radical downsizing of the federal government, a full audit of the Federal Reserve system, bringing home troops in undeclared foreign wars and committing troops in the future only after Congress has declared war. On those issues, and on others, there’s not much difference between Romney and President Barack Obama.
Asked about comments by top Romney aide Ed Gillespie, who said conservative and establishment Republicans would come together when faced with the choice between Romney and Obama, Bunce said some conservatives might opt out entirely. “It’s a toss up for some people.” he said.
UPDATE: Bunce is hardly the only upset conservative, either. Here’s an excellent piece from Mark Warren on Esquire‘s politics blog.
Hoping for the draining off of conservative votes from the Republican base?
Probably makes your team happy.
Don’t take it personal, you have made no secret of being a liberal and a Democrat.
I have no choice but to read your stuff with that in mind. But I do read, so be happy. Hope you are safe at the RJ.
The Green Party is only on the ballot in States that Obama will win like California.
I think the AIP is on the ballot in many of the swing states along with the Libertarian Party. Paul “lie’n” Ryan voted for all the spending under BUSH. Where will Obama or Romney get money for an IRAN WAR? A budget buster. A weak Obama divided government would be better than Romney with the House on his side, from the perspective of spending.
Gary Johnson has more of a track record than the Pauls. Rand Paul can’t do anything because he is for all the defence spending.
AS Harry Reid said: “I’m not running against Sharon Angle, I’m running against Angle, the Tea Party, the Libertarian Party, the American Independent Party and ‘none of the above’…then I win..” and he did.
The party is unified on one thing. If Mitt Romney is elected, the Republicans will bring you another war. Republicans love wars. They can add whatever they want to the budget if it’s military spending. The Republican-backing military industrial congressional complex will benefit with the additional war profits.
The one line in the speech about Putin and Iran was enough to turn off lots of voters. 65% of people think the Iraq War was a mistake and 55% of Republicans do as well. (so much for Jeb Bush and his defence of his creepy brother)
My understanding is that if a party gets a certain percentage of the votes in a Congressional district, they do not have to gather signatures to get their candidate on the ballot. Therefore the more votes a third party gets the better.