[Dead Corpse]

Short term? This has been going on since before "Read my Lips". Or do we need to revisit the Presidencies of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford as well?

Solid? Most Republicans can't even agree on First Principles! Anything that doesn't start with Bill of Rights Enforcement and Constitutional Limitations on government in general, isn't going to get you very far.

Most of the arguments get bogged down in minutia, personality conflicts, personal grudges, and Nanny State tendencies.

With that much baggage, no amount of counseling will save the relationship. There is too much built in inertia in the GOP to "haul it back to the Right". Look what happened with Steele and McCain if you need evidence of this.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Sorry, but I don't see any of this changing, even if you managed to animate your next version of the conservative party. In fact, an ego-driven third party will probably prove to be even less stable, and more prone to division and "perceived" RINOism than the present GOP is. After all, are free traders RINOs, or are protectionists? I've seen both castigated as such by the other side, even though on everything else they're pretty much all in agreement. Are people who favour a federalist approach to abortion RINOs, and the only "pure" conservatives are the ones who want a Human Life Amendment RIGHT NOW, even though it's nowhere near happening?

Problem with the third party proposals we're hearing is that they only appeal to pissed off people who don't have much sense about what actually needs done. All they know is they want to do SOMETHING, and they want to do it RIGHT NOW. So, they're doomed to failure.

Further, from the handles of FReepers on her who are pushing for a third party on this thread, I'm noticing a strong correlation between who is doing so here, and who on other threads have roundly castigated as RINOs everybody who didn't agree with them on every little thing 100%. So what happens when you form your third party, and then have a difference of opinion on your first policy question? Well, some of your egotistical hardheads will proceed to split and form a fourth party, and castigate you as a TPINO (Third Partyist in name only). And soon we have a fifth party, and so on.

It's so ridiculous, I can't believe anyone is giving it serious thought.

I plan to work within the system aggressively, with or without the egoists and lazy ones unwilling to do any heavy lifting.