We have to do something. Conservatives have been trying to "take over the GOP" for at least 40 years now. We're no closer now than when the Rockerfeller Republicans stabbed Goldwater in the back.
Forty years of doing the same thing and getting the same result should teach us something by now. If we can't learn in 40 years that we're not going to make the GOP more conservative, then we can't be all that bright.
I'll agree that the LP wastes a lot of their political capitol by continually harping about drugs, pornography, and prostitution. But as you pointed out, the LP is small. It's a hell of a lot easier to take over a small party and build it than to take over the GOP. If we work at it, it shouldn't take us forty years.
Besides, what else do we have to do? Sit around and sing the praises of the GOP as it takes us ever further to the left?
Why would anyone want to? Kinda like buying a bankrupt company.