Moral of the story, you folks out there in flyover country get some staunch conservative Republicans in office, and the RINOs will be replaced by ineffectual, whiny, but uber-liberal Rats.
Mmm, I don't think I agree. First of all, your assumption is speculation at best. It seems that you're saying if more real conservative Republicans are elected, RINOS will be replaced with Democrats. I don't see that as a general rule at all. I know liberals like I know - well, my back yard. Liberals/Democrats (the vast majority of them) would rather kill themselves with a grapefruit spoon than vote for anyone with an "R" next to their name. So the RINOS are getting elected mostly by mushy Republicans who either aren't ultra conservative, or, like me, HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE. Give people a *real* conservative to vote for, and things may change. A lot of conservatives just have the choice of voting for a Snowe or a Chafee or no one.
It's the machine that's RINO in many cases, not the regular people. For instance, in Hawaii Mike Gabbard is running for Congress - he's very conservative, was the prime mover in getting the Hawaii State Constitution Amendment passed to protect marriage. But the state GOP won't support him, althought the national GOP is. He's locally very popular, has a local elected position, his wife is a school board member, and his daughter is the youngest state representative in the history of the state!