Well, people on here need to think a little bit. If conservatives don't unite and FORCE the GOP into the right direction, there won't even be a 2010. There won't be anything.
I'm firmly convinced that about half the people posting on this thread are either DU plants or are sub-normal IQ mouthbreathers. Those are the only seemingly conceivable explanations.
It's like they have this weird self-fulfilling prophecy thing going on. They want to believe that the GOP is full of RINOs, and is therefore "not worthy" of their support (in which I think they overestimate their own importance, btw). So, they split the conservative vote by not voting or voting third party, and they don't get involved at the grassroots level, etc. Then, when conservatism predictably is weakened as a result, GOP elected officials at the national level start to drift Left, since that where the people who actually bother to show up and vote "obviously" want them to be. This, then, gives the nose-pickers the opportunity to further screech about how the GOP is just full of RINOs and "not worthy" of their support, ad nauseum.
Look, the cycle has got to be broken somewhere. The GOP won't swing back to conservatives until conservatives get organised and present a united front, instead of splitting their vote across fifty gadzillion pissant little third parties or staying home. United conservatives are what will convince the Party apparatus that the Right is where its bread is buttered. If conservatives want the GOP to bethe credible vehicle for conservatism that we need, then guess what? Conservatives will have to actually get off their duffs and get active in MAKING it so.
I think that's a lot of the problem, right there. Many conservatives are just insular and lazy. It's easier to whine about RINOs than it is to run for county chairman or public office or show up for a rally.
Other conservatives are cowards and fair-weather friends. It's easy to be conservative and support the GOP when Reagan is in office and it looks like things are going our way. It's not so easy when we're on the outs, like we are now. Many of these conservatives who profess to not msupporting the GOP because "it's all full of RINOs", I think, are just using this as an excuse not to have to do any heavy lifting or put their precious pride on the line. It's easier to just sit it out and be a whiner than it is to invest time and effort into an election, only to lose.
Frankly, any conservative who thinks the right course is to toss the GOP in the can and not vote, or vote third party, is either stupid, lazy or cowardly.
Well said.