Obama in his first term has done none of those things you listed. Now, that might change in his second term: maybe he’ll collectivize the farms, give Uncle Sam sole ownership of the means of production, and trot out ye olde bugle and choir to belt out a few verses of “The Internationale”. Right about now, though, everyone and their mothers is looking at Romney, looking back at Obama’s absolutely horrific first term… and saying to themselves, “You know? I can see Romney doing or continuing a whole lot of this crap given his record and rhetoric, and the stuff that he would do differently is so mincing that it’s not worth splitting a p to talk about.”

The problem, of course, is that they are correct in at least some respects. No one worries that Romney will do any of those things on your list, but after Obama’s first term, it’s pretty clear that those things aren’t a huge priority for Obama, either. Romney and his supporters aren’t battling Obama when it comes to the conservative vote; they’re battling Jack Daniels and apathy. Hate to break it to you, but right now Jack Daniels is winning, because Romney hasn’t presented a compelling case for what he’ll do as President, outlined his core convictions and philosophy (if he has any), or made clear how he’s any different from Obama on issues that matter. Instead, he and his supporters have run around making convoluted, contradictory (“nuanced”, they claim) arguments for why it’s bad when Obama does something, but why it’s great when Romney does the same thing. Oh yeah, and Vote Romney, you dumb rubes. It’s not like you have a choice. This line of argumentation insults our intelligence and just reinforces the problems that us hicks in the sticks have with Romney — such that a bunch of us are going to say, “White Obama can win all the beauty contests and primaries he wants — without my help.”

Figure out how to make Romney attractive, substantive, and meaningful on the issues that matter to the base, and you won’t have this problem. Distract people, make convoluted arguments, insult them, or try to scare them into voting Republican with the Obama boogeyman, and they’ll just ignore you. They already know why they’re not voting Romney — and you calling them dumb or going off on tangents is not going to dissuade them.