JRandomFreeper said "Ummm... No. I won't. I don't care about the Republican Party. Anymore than I care for the Whig party.
I do care about principles, and I WON'T VOTE FOR ROMNEY, PERIOD,
I agree with both statements. First, building a new conservative party from scratch will be much more difficult, expensive, and slower than using one of the two existing parties to advance conservatism.
If the Republican party were to become a conservative party, many of the long-time rank and file Republicans would stick right there just because its the Republican Party.
But voting in the annointed candidate every election only perpetuates the status quo. The party will continue to simply give lip service to conservatism while putting the good old boys in the positions of power. I think we are fools to continue to play that game expecting different results.
I care about the Republican Party because it is the closest thing to a Conservative Party we have and we can get to the desired environment quicker through the party than from without. If that's not going to happen, though, then I'm willing to pursue another path.
That’s pretty much my thinking, too.
My main point to JRandom, and the original guy I was replying to, was that jumping the gun and clamoring for a third party is not the way to go, because we still have a couple of conservatives in the race, as of now.
But if the Democrats cross over and do a Romney “Operation Chaos” on our Republican primaries, and Romney “gets” the nomination, we’re screwed anyway, so then we would just have to see...