I understand the third party sentiment. I really do. However, I would rather clean house in the Republican Party first. It’s been stolen from us and we need to get it back.
Agree that gaining control of the Republican Party is the most effective course of action.
However, I would disagree that it was "stolen from us". We conservatives have never owned it -- not since Coolidge, at least.
In my lifetime (born 1940), George H.W. Bush was clearly the third most conservative candidate the party has nominated -- after only Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater.
George H.W. Bush!!! Mr. Big Government "conservative" was #3!!!
Remember, too, how the party had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the Goldwater and Reagan candidacies.
Thus, the job is not to "take it back". It is to assert control over an alien machine that has enjoyed our support without representing our interests.