There is a lot to be said for keeping the old, familiar name. If the Tea Party candidates can take a significant fraction of new GOP seats, and if the new conservative politicians can withstand pressure from the GOP insiders, we may be able to keep the GOP name and assets but move the party back toward what it was supposed to have been. It worked when the Communist Party USA took over the Democrat Party, and I'd like to see it happen on our side but in a positive direction.
That would be the ideal, but after what has happened after 2010, it looks to be almost impossible. The tentacles of progressivism extend throughout every facet of D.C. We may have to come at them from the outside.