In our current political climate, one in which dispassionate evaluation of important topics in public by high minded and serious people is made impossible by leftist propaganda, the only possible selection can be in the direction of survival of people, not ideas. In an ideal world, one not suffused by angry nonsense, the best IDEAS would win out, consistently. This is the premise behind free speech: it is more efficient, over and above the moral value we subscribe to it.
John McCain and Mitt Romney were “selected” as the “candidates who can win”. Republican voters gave up on that idea in this election cycle, because, obviously, they were NOT candidates who can win. They were saps, who failed to articulate clear goals, to stand firm on principle, and who may as well have been Democrats, such was their quite actual “moderation”. What sane person would elect the architect of Romneycare to undo the damage of Obamacare?
No, the person selected has to be able to deal with a mean environment, continual manufactured controversy, and the sense on the part of many Americans that our dreams and ideals are being slowly strangled by virtually everyone, D and R alike.
Leftists created this environment. They have no right to complain that the system is operating properly.