The recent behavior by the Republican Party is sure to have pitted their voters against each other in searching for a GOP nominee. The sizeable amount of media coverage has only contributed to the mess that the republicans have gotten themselves into during recent debates. After the official withdrawal of Jon Huntsman many voters may find themselves at a loss as to who to vote for.
After what was, to say the least, a fiery string of debates between all of the candidates that led up to the New Hampshire and Iowa primaries, one can’t help but wonder what is going to happen when all of these opposing “cliques” of voters have to finally vote for one official Republican candidate.
During the New Hampshire, debate Huntsman claimed that Romney has a tendency to “flip-flop” and that “He doesn’t have what it takes to beat President Obama”, which we all know is the party’s main interest. Now that Huntsman has announced that he is endorsing Romney, how can voters trust his most recent pledge, when just last week he was condemning Romney? Is this a last-ditch effort to gain a Vice Presidential seat?
With the approaching South Carolina Primary, and some of the most vicious lines of attacks yet seen in this race, we can only assume that the tensions will rise further and worsen the already crumbling foundation the party has built themselves on.
What Republicans need to be worried about (if they aren’t already), is the idea of disjointed voters and the chance that they may lose their vote because they are still pent up and passionate about what they were spoon-fed during the primaries.
The conservative party can’t expect the voters to drop their own values and political ideologies at the drop of a hat just for the sake of the Republicans gaining control in the White House.
For many college students who are unsure of what party to affiliate themselves with, or who to vote for, hearing a candidate change gears that quickly and support the same person who they claimed was incapable of getting Obama out of office does not instill a vote of confidence in the candidates’ values and policies.
The candidates are supposed to be a reflection of the people they represent. In this case they are not. They are being naive to the fact that their followers have loyalties and biases against the other candidates. The voters that they are looking for will be looking for a reason to not vote for Obama, but first the former candidates will need to be convincing in the fact that we should vote for their former enemies after months of berating them.
If party members can change their views so abruptly in the primaries, what’s stopping them from doing it again once they are in Office?
