“With these considerations in mind, the best chances for increased conservative influence is within a recovering GOP. The fool’s choice is to back a rump third party with little constituency except for those nursing grudges from the last time Republicans ran Washington.”
You do not address the growing non-identity of the R party. What good will it be to have a ‘recovering GOP’ - if the GOP stands for nothing? I’ve argue we oppose RINOs everywhere in the primaries, but support conservative Republicans in the primaries and generals. We’ll see how well the AIP (et al) does on this count. They have been supporting Conservative Republicans to date. That should be our strategy. Conservatives must and will regain a more of a footing in 2010.
Let’s roll with the Tea Parties and local activism!
There are already hundreds of Tea Parties planned for July 4th - as well as the weekend before and after the 4th!:
http://teapartypatriots.org/index.php?option=com_eventlist&view=eventlist&Itemid=2
http://www.teapartyday.com/Locations.aspx - 629 cities with July 4th Tea Parties
http://www.teapartyrevolution.com/#schedule - another list of Tea Parties
http://www.reteaparty.com/teaparties/ - another list of tea parties
By all means support conservatives in GOP primaries. Attend and support tea parties. And gear up as conservatives to surf the likely GOP big waves in 2010 and 2012.