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You have hit the nail on the head. As an active member of the GOP in Texas, we are constantly being bullied, threatened by the social conservatives. They moan and bitch about Kay Bailey Hutchison and threaten to walk out if she is allowed to speak.

I loathe Dobson also ever since I heard him say, if the GOP does not pay attention to his agenday, "Then I am going to walk and take as many as I can with me." Disgusting and Armey was right when he called him a bulley.

You put together my thoughts exactly about the direction of the party. To me this was another mistake Reagan made--becoming to friendly with the Christian Right.

The coalition worked for Reagan because the social conservatives, or "Reagan Democrats" as they are often called, were brand new to the party, and the rest of the GOP hadn't really had time to digest this new wing of the party.

I think the replacement of Dick Armey with Tom DeLay as House Majority Leader was an EXTREMELY defining moment in the future of the party, even if few people realize it. Dick Armey was a true conservative, who always put principle first. Tom DeLay, on the other hand, to me is the epitome of everything wrong with the GOP today. Between twisting arms to get GOP Congressmen to vote for Bush's huge Medicare expansion and the whole Terri Schiavo debacle, it's clear where his priorities were, and they weren't with conservatism.