Excellent post.
I fully agree with Joe Scarborough. Moreover, I am glad that he is making this statement. Two observations:
1. I cannot understand the obsession of the Republicans with their own self-destruction. Consider the poll taken on this site. Only 41% of FReepers will vote republican this election cycle. Compare that to, say, the last election for GWB. I bet it was better than 99%. My point is that the republican losses are due to a loss of the base. How difficult is this to understand??? Scarborough is explaining how they are the instruments of their own demise.
2. Sitting out this election or voting for a conservative 3rd party (e.g. the Conservative Party) makes sense. As many have pointed out, it might be a tactical mistake, but I think it is strategically correct. Send the Republicans a message. Maybe after an election cycle we will get better ones that we can vote for.
Only if you want people like Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean, Jesse Jackson... to call the shots.
I used to fantasize about a 3rd party (Libertarian) takeover of the federal government. I still believe in the libertarian philosophy, but the notion that they will ever come into power is a pipe dream.
Like it or not, the cold hard fact of political life is that there are only two political parties in Congress, D's and R's. If the R's lose because conservatives sat out or voted 3rd party, D's win. The winners won't care that you didn't vote for them, because they didn't have your vote anyway. And the losers won't care, because they're now out of power and have no further reason to seek your vote.