Once upon a time there were a whole bunch of these guys who considered themselves patriots—but they were radical as hell.
They pushed the idea that the status quo wasn’t acceptable and all signed a document that began, “When in the course of human events...
And another radical called forth the people’s action with...The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
Another said, “you have a Republic, if you can keept it.”
So if the guy is out there who can motivate the people to throw the rascals out, God bless him and keep him safe against puling wimps like David Brooks
The people you are talking about were locally known as “Whigs”. Their opponents in the provincial assemblies were known as “Tories”. It was a two-party system. There was no third option.
Most of us agree with the Republican Party platform to the letter. We cannot, or at least HAVE not, come up with a better platform. The problem we have is that GOP politicians either a) dissent from the platform when they’re running, or b) fail to implement the platform after election. The problem with the GOP is the people, not the message. So the best thing to do is change the people. And we can do that pretty easily—1) register Republican, and 2) vote for better people.
Now some people do not like parts of the message. They think it’s too socially conservative, or too fiscally conservative, and they want to form their own party to cater to others of like mind.