What is it?
The Social Conservatives
the Libertarian conservatives
The fiscal conservatives
the Paleo-conservatives
The Neo-conservatives
The Isolationist conservatives
and so forth. When you look at the various third parties each party is made up of one faction of that spectrum. There is no hope of a "cooalition 3rd party simply because the existing 3rd parties are completely incompatible. The GOP is a coalition party. It has a significant conservative faction, a VERY LARGE moderate faction and a small liberal faction. However, when you look at committee assignments, the conservatives hold the larger share of chairmanships. That is why it is important to suck it up and elect even RINOs to the senate. It is the numbers that count and who chairs the committees. The GOP is now what Reagan wanted it to be, a big tent party truly capable of a governing majority.