I've been here just a bit longer, and I have seen the milquetoasts of FR say,
“We’ve got negotiable principles so it doesn’t matter if we elect a RINO or not!”
Who really cares if he/she is a heretic as well?
You can take chemo and be uncomfortable, but survive, or you can die of cancer.
I’ll take the RINO over the Marxist. With one, there is still some room for improvement. A RINO is less likely to coerce our personal values and beliefs, while a Marxist is guaranteed to do so. Besides, a Conservative, having to run against 70% of the population, will always lose, so there simply isn’t any rational argument.
There is the emotional argument, however. It’s just that it has no real upside in the real world. People go on about Third Parties, but look at all the countries that have multiple parties. They end up being coalitions, so even when the relatively more conservative parties win, they must negotiate and end up indebted to the extremists. They don’t last long in power, either.
If the True Conservatives cannot sway the majority here, on FR, how much chance do they have out there in the big wide real world? It simply won’t happen, so it is a waste of time to continually rant hatefully against anyone who doesn’t meet a rigidly held list of requirements.
I suppose there is personal satisfaction in absolutism. It certainly works that way for the smug absolutists on the other side. I think it is better to live one’s most deeply held values and act as an example to win hearts and minds. Eventually, that might go the furthest towards countering the inculcations of the Left. Simply attacking anyone not up to one’s standards only away pushes even the people who are sympathetic to your POV. Calling someone a heretic sends total chills down the spines of many because it implies some sort of State Belief System which is no more attractive from the Right than from the Left.
The Left is learning that it is not possible to successfully legislate values and remain popular. It is destroying their own coalition. We could learn from that.