[Old_Mil]

Here's a news flash: Politics is war by nonviolent means.

For better or worse, I don't agree with your definition. Politics is the struggle for power given a specific set of rules, that occurs within those specific rules. War is an attempt to define a new set of rules through violent conflict.

voting third party simply takes conservatives out of the game;

...except when voting Republican takes convervatives out of the game? If every voter in America who was both a social and a fiscal conservative had the courage of their convictions and pulled the lever for the Constitution party, it would be the Republicans who would find themselves in third party status in short order.

If the Republican party wants to avoid that fate, perhaps the should govern with one eye on that reality.

[Mr. Silverback]

If the Republican party wants to avoid that fate, perhaps the should govern with one eye on that reality.

But it's not reality, and meanwhile your purity of "principle" makes it easier for Democrats to gain power. that's a sucker game. If you ewant party discipline, make it stick in the primaries and support the guys in the House instead of throwing your vote in the trash.