Once again we may be missing the point. Like you say, Paloma, the party we thought we were issuing into power seems to be far different in the reality of their actions.
Rather than giving up on support for the Republicans, the only solution to this problem will be won or lost in our primaries. When the Republicans prove not to be conservatives, let us not give up on the party, but rather expell from it those interlopers and pretenders who have disgraced the party.
Many Republican Senators and Congressmen have tried to press a conservative agenda. Let us not throw out the conservatives with the bath water.
If we allow incumbent "republicans" to demand that no challenger to them be taken seriously, much less supported, in the primaries, then we are indeed hoist on our own petard.
We need to channel this anger into defeating, in the primaries, every RINO currently serving. This nonsense about, "Well, if you don't leave ME on the ballot as the Rpublican candidate, then the Democrat will win..." is the stuff of losers.
If there are not enough of us conservatives, who will work tirelessly to defeat the discredited "Republicans" already in the House and Senate, then we may as well expect more of the same as far as the eye can see.
USE THIS ANGER... and withdraw the power of attorney which we have handed to the Republican Party, until such time as a quorum of Republicans are conservatives and vertebrates.
We should be ashamed and angry that a Senator Arlen Spector still is on the payroll. Angry that we acquiesced in it. Angry enough to disregard those who urge more of the same. Angry enough to bloody well change things while we still can, using a ballot printed in English, rather than the "all the languages of the world" that the liberals plan.
Look no further than Chaffee in RI and what the RNC is doing for him against his conservative challenger.
Disgusting. The RNC acts like hoes who put out for pimps who slap them around which is what ol Lincoln Chaffee has done to them.