[::slowly, enunciating exaggeratedly::]
Not.
If.
You.
Are.
Not.
A.
Member.
Of.
The.
Republican.
Party.
Party hacks may feel somehow obliged, for whatever ungodly reason, to march in eternal lockstep with Der Party, regardless of who (or what) is serving as its titular head. That's their hard luck, if so.
No conservative, on the other hand -- unaffiliated with said cabal in any way, shape or form -- is under any such obligation.
I am a conservative and a Republican, and I will make my own prudential judgments, thank you very much. I am not a hack or a slave to anyone. I just feel the logical choice in a general election is to support the most conservative candidate running. Apparently that is in disagreement with your choice, and that is the worst of sins according to your lights, so you have demonize me as a result. How pathetic. So according to your logic, ANYONE who considers themselves a Republican is not a conservative. The two are mutually exclusive. OK, whatever. The demonization of other conservatives and Republicans by you and others on this site is contemptible and disgusting. In politics, one has to work together to form coalitions to forward one’s principles as much as is practicable. One expresses one’s strong ideological preferences in the primaries, but one has to step back and look at the bigger picture pragmatically in the general election. Politics is the art of the possible. You objectively pro-Obama hyperpurists will lead to the death of this once great country. And particularly those still demonizing Romney and anyone supporting after the Ryan pick. Shame on you.