[supercat]

Many politicians who call themselves Republicans have a political identity which centers around their ability to "work with" Democrats, or around their ability to present themselves as being "electable by a conserva-phobic populace". If conservatives were to score decisive victories, such politicians would lose their raîson d'être. They must therefore do whatever is necessary to ensure that doesn't happen.

The issue of whether a politician is a "moderate Republican" or a "RINO" doesn't have to do with the degree of conservatism they express, but rather in the degree to which they want to defeat leftism. If a congresscritter from a leftist state feels he cannot actively support a conservative agenda, that's fine, provided he doesn't actively oppose it. On the other hand, a congresscritter who openly supports a conservative agenda in cases where his actions can't affect its success or failure, but will opposes a conservative agenda in those cases where he has the power to make it fail, is poison and should be recognized as an ememy.

[little jeremiah]

I made these comments on another similar thread, many good comments on there:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2839702/posts

Why does the GOP establishment want to run a moderate liberal? ( We will lose to Obama )

The GOP establishment types actually are not conservative, do not honor the Constitution, feel scorn towards us hoi polloi who don’t have the polish, insider/elitist contacts and lifestyle they have; some of us are poor, not so educated, and hold what to them are “extremist” views and ways of life. Many of the GOP elitists are not morally or socially conservative at all, so that is another reason they scorn us. They also feed off of attention from the MSM and fellow elitists and could give a rip what we think of them.

They are kissing cousins of the Dems, they have much more fellow feeling towards Dems/leftsits than they do towards the conservative believing and voting (when we get a chance!) populace. They actually prefer the status quo, do not want a return to Constitutional governance. They actually don’t care much about “winning” elections as they do about maintaining their hold on power, which they can have via money, lobbying and so on, whether the Rs or Ds win.

I view them just as much the enemy as Dems/leftists, if not more so. The reason I see them as actually worse enemies than leftists/Dems is that the GOP is supposedly the conservative side. I’d rather have an enemy wearing an enemy uniform than an enemy pretending to be a brother in arms, but in reality has loyalty towards the other side.