And if you shoot yourself in the foot and give the field to the enemy - thereby loosing the war...what have you won?
Wrong metaphor. Yours assumes you should never have been on the battlefield in the first place. You also conveniently ignored the other part of my question. Once the Republicans have finished giving up every principle, just to save their precious "party," how will they be any different than their opposition? At that point it simply becomes a matter of which football team you like or what color shirt you wear.
Machiavellianism and triangulation are for people with weak minds and weaker character.