I'm not clear where your perspective diverges from mine on Carville's common-sense advice for running a pragmatic campaign.
I've said it before, but while too young to vote then, I've been politically aware since 1975-1976. If I could have voted at that age, I would have supported Jimmy Carter. I liked his optimism for the country and sincerity and Christian faith. But he proved to be weak and indecisive as president, and did a lot of damage to the economy and to national pride in his 4 years. In retrospective his ideology was globalism at the cost of Americanism and American sovereignty. His national security advisor was Brzezinsky (his daughter is Mika on Morning Joe) and Brzinsky and Rockefeller were the co-founders of the globalist Trilateral Commission, an ideology Carter clearly bought into himself.
In 1980, Reagan was the clear choice for me, no contest. I've never been so confident of the right direction of the country than under Reagan.
Again an easy choice in 1984.
G.H.W. Bush was again the obvious choice in 1988, on paper the most qualified man ever to run for president. This was actually the first presidential election I voted in. Although Bush was a disappointment, campaigning as a conservative and governing as a moderate and globalist, racking up debt, raising taxes and breaking his most firm campaign promise.
And in retrospect possibly setting the stage for and fighting an unnecessary war: A diplomat's statement in 1990 that the U.S. would not defend Kuwait is arguably what emboldened Saddam Hussein to do so when he otherwise would have been deterred from it if that was not said. It's possible that was an unplanned error, or that it was done to deliberately provoke a war. In late 1991, Bush also encouraged the Kurds and Shi'ites to rise up, and then ordered U.S. forces to stand on the sidelines and let them be slaughtered in the tens of thousands by Saddam Hussein's forces.
I voted Perot in 1992 and 1996, for the purposes of 1) pushing the Republican party further right and a return to Reagan conservatism if they wanted my future vote, and 2) to build a 3rd-party alternative to both the Democrats and the Republicans.
In 2000 I voted for Ralph Nader, and in retrospect I would have voted Pat Buchanan, if I was better versed in his views at that time. Nader in retrospect was too left-aligned for me. And at that point I gave up on third-party candidates as just throwing away my vote. At the time I started going third-party in 1992, Perot got 19%, a real viable alternative. But by 2000 and since, third parties now get 1 or 2% at most. Useless, except as maybe a way of saying "none of the above".
in 2004, as the better alternative to the impossibly leftist and pacifist Kerry, I voted W.Bush for his second term. And while he wasn't my kind of Republican, too globalist/establishment, he still on the net did more right than Al Gore or Kerry would have.
I think 2008 was the last time I seriously considered a Democrat. And really since back to 2004, the Democrats have lurched to the crazy/anti-American/globalist/socialist-marxist/open-borders Left. It just took me till 2008 to fully realize that was a permanent change. David Horowitz's book THE SHADOW PARTY explains why.
Up till 2008, I gave serious consideration to Democrat candidates, despite that I ultimately went Republican or independent. But since then, the Democrat/Left has made clear they are hell-bent on destroying and "radically transforming" America, into something non-white and non-capitalist.
And since that time Democrats have not only been a party that I disagree with, but one that is openly hostile to what I value and who I am ethnically. And Democrats are increasingly open about wanting to harm and destroy those who are white, conservative, Christian, capitalist, or all the above. Or at the very least, the less radical Democrats are willing to pander to and enable those who do.
I frankly don't know how anyone could support the current Democrats, when their vision for the country is to destroy what currently exists. As Lou Dobbs terms it, they have become the party of hate. Hating America, and hating anyone who would preserve it. And ironically in the process, branding themselves the true patriots.
