You pretty well summed it up. I guess where I might differ is that going back to the Dem Party's origins as the party of slavery, I don't think it can ever be purified. The Bible says that a bad tree can't give good fruit, and I think that's the case with the Dems. You can count on one hand the number of Dems who have ever "done the right thing" at their time in history---Grover Cleveland, Harry Truman (sometimes) and Kennedy (occasionally). All the rest have been corrupt and, well, if not evil, willing to tolerate evil on a massive scale.
Any redemption or "check" for the Republicans is going to have to come from an energized (and moral) independent party to its right.
Yeah, I didn't want to make it seemed like I support the dems in any way. I just wanted to illustrate that this problem (al Qaeda with nukes) is vastly more important to me than any other consideration. It dwarfs immigration in my opinion.
The dems just aren't up to the job. Any way of voting that puts the dems in the White House is just suicidal in my opinion.