Actually, here in the South people started turning Republican because the Democommies became social liberals. The country clubbers are a lot like the NC GOP for the last century- just go along, get along, and take permanent minority status, unless the Democrats become so corrupt that it becomes impossible to leave them in power- which is finally what happened in Nov. In my book, such people might as well be Democommies.
Traditionally that's what they do. The Democrats also have people who run party machinery and pay the bills ~ and they are "selected" in an entirely different manner.
What you have to figure out first is that the Republican coalition operates differently than the Democrat coalition. Since both parties are "coalitions" and far different than European or African parties or Asian parties, there are going to be people within each party who DO NOT AGREE WITH the rest of 'em ~ but they play some part in giving the party dominance in the legislative arena. Purity of ideology has NEVER been a necessity in American party politics.
Currently we have some Republicans in the Senate and the House who imagine that a deal was made with Obama that requires them to vote for some other Obama nonsense. We'll find out won't we.
Frankly, we can DEFEAT START through control of the budget and implementation legislation. It can become just another one of a long list of treaties Presidents have signed and Senate's have ratified that turn into poop.
We can also defeat TARP II and Obamakkkare the same way. It's coming.
Still, we are going to have some Republican Senators who don't go along with us but they're mostly old guys who should've retired already. There are suitible replacements available should they do so.