[AFPhys]

I would certainly join such a party if it reached critical mass... [nevertheless] ... W and the GOP will get my vote for the foreseeable future.

LS: I have great respect for your thought processes and attitudes about these things. Up to now, the GOP has kept pace with the right-center of the American people. If they fail to continue to follow the march rightward, a viable third party can and probably will result.

I've enjoyed the banter with all of you this morning. Sad to say, I've got to run now.

[LS]

Look, in the 1850s, we saw the "right" party, the Whigs, disintegrate (along with two others, the "Free-soil," "no-nothings" and then fold in members of the old "Liberty" party) virtually overnight. That was because a new party, the Republicans, had a clear statement of ideals that took the main planks of the Whigs, but put on top the most pressing danger to the nation, slavery, which everyone was afraid to talk about.

Both parties today are so much larger and better organized that I really can't see this happening---but it is possible if the GOP, for example, doesn't soon address immigration. It is already the only pro-life party out there---pro-life and drugs are the two main reasons I am NOT a Libertarian. If the GOP "gets it" that controlling our borders is a central part of the "war on terror" and the economy, it would take off like a rocket. Nevertheless, it would also REORGANIZE both parties, as many pro-free-immigration people would abandon the GOP for the Dems, and many unionists would come over in support.

Barring that, the only hope I have that the GOP will get more conservative is with a dedicated, state-by-state takeover of the national committee, and that will not happen while W is president due to his personal character, fundraising, and likeability factor.