I simply prefer to win elections at this point; we need to overhaul the judiciary, and a GOP supermajority in the Senate are crucial to accomplishing this.
Essentially, I am no longer willing to tolerate all this divisive BS that has sent people packing for the Constitution Party and other splinters.
Your preferred solution being, of course, a nice Stalinist purge.
Firstly, those of you promoting the current orthodoxy need to grit your teeth, hold you noses, and move yourselves to the Right.
I'm the conservative guy who worked on campaigns with less-than-perfectly conservative candidates. I'm the guy who got backstabbed by self-appointed "true conservatives"--your buddies--during those campaigns.
I've given up on trying to build coalitions of the unwilling. Your ilk routinely work to throw elections to the Democrats--and they sometimes use GOP walking-around money to do it!
Break them of this nasty habit, and they might get listened to in 10 years or so. Until then, I see no particular reason to beg for their votes. They've never delivered a damn thing, but they sure demand a lot in return for doing nothing.
Bottom line: earning 1 vote from your faction costs more than one vote elsewhere.
I've supported Republicans whose ideas were to the right of my own. I have learned, the hard way, that such support does not get reciprocated later on.
Secondly, those booing Bush, leaving to vote Constitution, or saying they'll sit out the election need to undergo the same teeth gritting and nose holding, and rejoin us.
Their decision. They've opted for irrelevancy long enough that the GOP feels its safe to ignore them. 2002 indicates that such an approach is correct.
Debates such as these *can* be constructive if we have big rules that when the brass tacks are down later this year, we will support the GOP slate.
In other words, you're saying that in the real world, here and now, these debates are largely useless.
Your side of the aisle--the hard right--has made itself largely irrelevant to the GOP by doing exactly that which you decry. I oppose wasting money, resources, and the most valuable coin of all--trust--on these folks until they actually start delivering votes reliably.
Frankly, it's going to take a few elections of just shutting up and pushing 100% for candidates you disagree with, and getting damn little in return. If your ilk hadn't squandered their political capital on various temper-tantrums, efforts to split the conservative vote and elect liberal nutballs, and generally demanding the contempt of the GOP, that wouldn't be necessary. But they did all that, and they now get to enjoy the consequences of their decisions. And you get to go along for the ride, because you choose your friends unwisely.