016-The pre-GOP candidates – value voters summit significance

Focusing on two particular pre-GOP candidates, Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rand Paul (R-KY), one finds a contrast of sorts, the biggest being that both men are not either Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush and or Chris Christie. Enter the Value Voters Summit , otherwise known as the Evangelical Christian look at viable candidates for the Presidency. Noticeably absent were the three previous mentioned. Generally, those are the candidates that the evangelicals and all the power of the vote they carry will vote for. If one’s name is not on the list, one can kiss the election goodbye. Both Cruz and Paul have fans from both sides of the Conservative bench and both were invited. Cruz won the straw poll, while Paul, not placing gets points for being invited. While the Boston Herald Op-Ed columnist Holly Robichaud describes Cruz as the second coming of Ronald Reagan., PJ O’Rourke came away with in some wonderment after interviewing Rand Paul.

Therefore one captivates the right, undoubtedly and the other, both the right and the left. But, the Religious vote in the nation plays a factor. Evangelical Christians are a larger force than Catholics who trend, for the most part, as Democrat voters according to Pew One only need to look at the turnout for the election of 2012 to notice that several million voters were absent. In 2004 – the general election vote tally was 68.4% of the nation’s vote, in 2008, when the African American vote was at a peak, the turnout was at 62.3%, but in 2012, the turnout was at 57.5% (CNN) –a group did not show up to vote. The outcome was obvious. When one is absent the “value voters” – those social issue voters that are, for the most part, single issue, Pro-Life, Pro-Marriage, they are also concerned about voting for someone they feel maybe in a cult – those are the evangelicals, to whom Mormonism is a cult. They will not come around and vote because someone is a Republican, they have had their dance, and the Catholic vote, which is slightly lower by a few million here or there, generally goes to the Democrats, regardless of the fact that they are pro choice, it is – what it is.

What will be interesting is how the rank and file GOP, when given a choice, hold sway in the voting process between say a Mitt Romney, or a Ted Cruz, or a Rand Paul. Should they vote in the primary and overwhelming support an anti-Romney candidate, in record numbers and should Romney win the nomination (or Jeb Bush or Chris Christie) the RNC should prepare in advance, to concede defeat to whoever it is on the Democrat ticket. Common sense, and a solid polling suggested that there should not have been a second term for this President, however..Without the full weight of the churches behind Romney, that did occur.