It looks like I'm dealing with a real political groupie here.
This is my take on you, Tigger, Eore and Piglet - "Forget principle. Say anything. Do anything. Morph into whatever it takes. Just so that our team wins."
There must be a line beyond which you would not “follow the leader”. Isn’t there? Tell me what it is.
For me and for many Conservatives, the GOP has crossed a line on many crucial issues and is wandering further beyond the point which we are willing to follow. We call to them, write to them, email and FAX them. We implore them to return to our core beliefs. But, all too often we helplessly watch them wander ever further to the left. It's the kind of frustration a parent must feel when a teenager goes off the deep-end.
Go ahead with them if you please. I'll stay right here and hold the fort. Hopefully, when the party arrives to camp beside the Democrats and as they merge into indistinguishable entities, there will be a few who will return home.
And when they fall on their swords for you...you don't turn out to vote. And you haven't since 1992. Everything you've gotten--and you've gotten a LOT, whether or not you're willing to admit it--is a gift. And as for calling, writing, and faxing--if you actually DID do that, you are the extreme exception.
I was a conservative GOP activist from 1994 to early 1996. My experience with "the base" was that they didn't want to be bothered with actually doing any heavy lifting between elections, but they wanted every single one of THEIR pet issues taken care of, and then they MIGHT bother to show up on Election Day, if it was personally convenient. In the wake of the 1995 budget deadlock and how the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned "conservative base" were complete no-shows, leaving Newt and company with zero support against a coordinated and effective Democrat attack, I was the lightning rod for the local GOP's frustration with their "base." The favorite quote about the "base" was Thomas Paine's famous quip about "Summer soldiers and sunshine patriots."
Either start showing up to vote, show up in between elections for the hard work, and generally act like adults--or get used to being ignored.