GOP's ideology and platform

Forget where I read this, but one of the reason's that the GOP's ideology and platform is so out of touch with the ordinary American is that it is developed by think tanks who respond to big donors who also happen to be rigid ideologues. Then the party bigwigs insist on carrying it out to the letter, casting out any apostates who may not be pure enough in their conservatism. The candidates vie with each other during the Republican debates to see who can jump the furthest to the right.

Romney simply took on whatever position would trump the other wingers whether he believed in it or not. He's a pragmatist who pretended to be an ideologue-- That pretense turned off Americans almost as much as the GOP ideology does.