I don't pretend to know the solution, but I'm still waiting for the GOP to pull out the knife they stuck in my back.
I think the main problem is that the GOP leadership is utterly, completely and totally out of touch with its base. COMPLETELY. Furthermore, they show no interest whatsoever in listening to us. Its like talking to a cadaver. I never get a response to anything I ask.
I don't know that abandoning the GOP is the answer, but I am witholding $$$ donations and screaming in faces until I detect a heartbeat inside Washington DC.
I hope you know that you are in for a long wait.
They show no interest in us because they don't need us. This "vote Rudy or get Hillary" strategy is nothing new. The whole Republican shtick for years has been to take for granted that we will vote for them because everyone knows the Demons are even worse. Once they are in office they pay off the special interest groups whose bribes (oops..campaign contributions) paid their campaign costs. This is why Rove focuses on "getting out the vote," not on issues. The only "issues" the Pubbie leaders have is getting elected, then passing out appointments to the Party hacks: the same people they bus around to vote in straw polls here and there. Government is simply the biggest racket in the world. I'm afraid we do need a 3rd party which is strong enough to force the others to listen, but conditions (the war and SCOTUS) don't allow time for that. It's a desperate situation; we're over a barrel.
Selecting Guiliani.... I just don't know if I can hold my nose and pull the lever for him. That makes things extremely hard for a large group of us, with whom the GOP leadership has lost touch. What's so terrible about being pro-life?