The fix might be in

Rick Perlstein's picture

An excellent article

in The New Republic by Noam Scheiber on how Republican nominations work. For a candidate, "The people he has to convince aren't the people who watch debates on TV. It's the people who pal around with the candidates backstage."

These would be the hustlers who control conservative money and organizations, whose cynical culture Scheiber captures admirably: they "look at Romney and see a tall, good-looking, well-spoken, highly successful capitalist who, on top of all that--dayanu!--is willing to pretend he opposes gay marriage, abortion, and illegal immigration."

Of course, their constituents in the Evangelical rank and file consider Romney "dangerous cult member." (He quotes one Baptist calling Utah "a stronghold of Satan.")

But since when has a conservative leader cared about selling out their constituents, especially if there is something in it for him?





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