After Hope and Change discusses in detail the Republican nomination process for the 2012 election. As in most primaries, each candidate ran to the far end of the spectrum. As Democratic candidates lean farther to the left, Republican candidates learn farther to the right. A clear frontrunner did not appear as quickly as Romney probably would have liked, with Santorum carrying enough states to prolong the process. The 2012 election primary season showed something deeper about the changing dynamics of the Republican party. For instance, one can argue that Santorum appealed to a different, if not separate, base than Romney did in the primary. Overgeneralizing and oversimplifying, we could say that the individual who values conservative social issues most in a selecting a candidates tended to prefer Santorum, while the individual focused on conservative fiscal policies tended to prefer Romney. While both of these ideas are fundamental to the GOP, the 2012 primary displayed a distancing between the two.
A recent article in the New York Times addresses how various prominent Republicans used the government shutdown to potentially position themselves in the 2016 primaries. It will be indeed interesting to see which aspect of the Republican platform will dominate the race. This very well could decide who will seize the nomination. Cruz? Rubio? Ryan? Paul? Christie? Bush? Only time can tell.
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