Yesterday, Bryan Fischer was a guest on Steve Deace’s radio program where the two commiserated over the state of the Republican Party and discussed just what options social conservatives will have if the GOP attempts to jettison their culture war issues in an effort to win over moderate and independent voters.
In Fischer’s assessment, such a move would be tantamount to political suicide for the GOP because, contrary to popular opinion, those who classify themselves as “independents” are not moderates, but rather hard-line conservatives who refuse to consider themselves Republicans because the party is not conservative enough … and so the only way to win over “independents,” especially white voters who are “naturally” a part of the Republican base, is for the GOP to become more conservative on all the issues:
Fischer: There are a lot of people in America who are independents because the Republican Party as it currently exists is not conservative enough for them, it doesn’t represent their values. So they’re to the right, actually, of where the Republican Party is; they’re independents. So if the Republican Party thinks they’ve got to move toward the center, well they’re moving further and further away from these conservatives that are looking for a conservative voice; they’re actually hurting themselves moving away from their base.
Deace: You know, you think if the GOP is so much more business-smart, Bryan, well, the first rule of business is the customer is always right, isn’t he? I mean, wouldn’t you actually cater to the customers you have rather than trying to make them into something their not?
Fischer: Well, and you look at the turnout this year, Steve, where President Obama’s vote totals dropped by X number of million votes, I don’t know exactly what the final total was – I think it’s between six and seven million fewer votes Obama received this year than 2008. So here’s a guy that’s ripe for being picked off, but Romney barely matched the vote totals of John McCain in 2008 and we know from some of the other exit polling that probably six to seven million white voters stayed home: they naturally would be a part of Romney’s base. So he just wasn’t sending any message to them that was convincing them, as part of the Republican base, that it was worth even showing up to vote.
