Defining yourself relative to the Democrats means jack squat to me.
If you're not a small government Constitutional conservative, PERIOD, then you can forget about my support.
That's where I draw a line in the sand.
In lots of ways, I agree with you. We should be able to present conservatism as an alternative, not just a lesser liberal approach. I'm with you there.
Here is where we depart: Sometimes it's clearly better to vote for muddled rather than something that approaches evil. I think that happens more in our world than not and we have to deal with it. I would prefer that not be true, in my ideal world it wouldn't be true.
Reagan said it something like this (And no, he's NOT a RINO): Don't let the perfect get in the way of the good.