Yo ohioWfan, I do appreciate your point of view. But, even more, I appreciate your willingness to discuss without resort to name calling or just shutting off what you may not want to hear.
To set the record straight I’m not, in principle, anti- Republcan. I am anti-RINO Republicans and they control the NRC. Certainly you would agree on the point that RINOs control the NRC.
In my best of all worlds I would love it if the NRC/GOP were to change course with conservative leadership. That, afterall, is what got Reagan, and every Pubbie Pres. after him, elected. The Bushes turned out to be tepid conservatives at best, even though their claim to be that got the conservative vote.
IMHO people like myself, a grass roots Tea Partier, have succeeded in nudging that along. Cases in point: NY Dist. 23 and the NRC Chair’s rant to conservatives to stop complaining or fire me. Conservatives do not have the clout to do that and Steele knows it.
Again, IMHO the GOP has been coopted by the demrats. The RINOs leading the GOP owe their allegiance to the demrats. They will lose the crumbs the dems deign to throw their way if they do not follow demrat marching orders.
It is heartening that Dodd and two three other Congressional dems have announced retirement or their desire to not run again. If there is more of this, perhaps some number of RINOs will desert the demrat ship. This could lead to conservative control of the GOP. I view this as a long shot at this time.
As to your comment about conservatives going to Washington and losing their principles. That is a spcious argument. Conservatives, by definition, are principled. Principled people do not lose their principles for political expediancy.
Finally, in the absense of a second opposition party to the demrats a vacuum has formed. Just as the world turns on its axis, some opposition entity will coalesce to fill that vacuum. Whether that is a reinvented GOP or some other entity is unknown. That the void will be filled is inevitable.
I'll start with clarifying that I am anti-RINO too - have been for decades (you should be an Ohio conservative Republican, dools. It's pretty much awful. Think "Taft" Think "Voinovich" Think "DeWine"). The difference between me (a conservative Republican) and those who are not Republicans is that I don't sweep the entire party with the broad brush of RINO. If all are RINOS then the meaning of the word is nullified. My own Congressman, Jim Jordan, is a stellar conservative who has remained untainted by being in DC - though he hasn't been there that long yet. He's really solid. He, and others like DeMint, are completely supportive of the Tea Party movement and he even spoke at several in Ohio on April 15.
I don't think you can state unequivocally that every conservative is so principled that they can't be moved. Ideally that is so, but there are too many examples of people who really WERE conservatives until they got swept up in the Washington social/political/financial set of perks and lost what they had. In the "best of all worlds" all conservatives are immutable in their principles, but it just ain't so in real life. We send conservatives and they wash out as 'moderates/ liberals." It's the biggest frustration of all of us conservative Republicans out here.
One comment about the Bushes......especially George W. He campaigned as "the education candidate." That's not a traditional position for a conservative, is it? If people were fooled into thinking he was hard core, they weren't paying attention. He campaigned on cutting taxes, and did it. He campaigned on supporting the troops, and he did it in spades. He campaigned as a pro-life candidate, and is being honored by pro-life groups for his unwavering and vocal support of the sanctity of life. He selected a strong set of conservatives for the judiciary, and has been honored for that.
Bottom line, he did what he said he was going to do. Education, tax cuts, pro-life, pro-military. No deceit involved.
I just heard on Rush that 60 some percent of Americans think of John McCain as the "head" of the Republican party. This, IMO, is tragic. I don't think it's true, though he may think he is, but if it is true, and actual Republicans think it's true, then I will concede your point about being coopted.
What I actually believe is that our party is currently leaderless, and that's a good thing, because if the Tea Party movement, which is made up of a whole lot of Republicans in the mix, is as effective as I think it is, then the whole party will begin a significant shift to the right.
And that will save the country.