You must be too young to know that when you accuse someone of 'lock step', you are accusing them of collaboration with Nazism. Is that what you're doing?
First of all, I'm 40. Neither too young, nor too old.
Secondly, where did I use the word "Nazi" in this post?
You don't think there can be a totalitarianism of the right? Why should a government composed of party apparatchiks, who manipulate the nomination process to their benefit (this is done on both sides of the aisle, btw) be preferable? Simply because one might be "right" and the other "left"? Simply because one side says "I feel as you do"?
Quite frankly, both are to be avoided like the plague. The fact that many conservatives wrap their agenda in the flag, or Scripture, doesn't mean that when they achieve political power that they will exercise it any more responsibly than the "other side" would (I submit, as proof, the last Congress). In fact, thery're just as likely to manipulate and plunder as leftists are. That's human nature at work. Just because Candidate A was seen coming out of a Church and Candidate B was seen at an abortion rally, it doesn't automatically follow that A must be better than B, unless you have something else by which to judge them.
That something else is debate. A chance for a candidate to make his/her case. The problem arises when the candidate is not ALLOWED to make their case, and that permission is not necessarily denied because of anything the GOVERNMENT does, but because the CITIZENS are of such a bent that they simply refuse to hear it. They shoot the messenger and never hear the message because the messenger might not live up to some mystical standard.
There is a censorship being exercised here, and I for one, never considered censorship as being a republican virtue. I don't say "Vote for Rudy because he's the only hope" I only say "put your prejudices aside for a minute and listen to what he has to offer". From where I sit, it doesn't appear as if he'll get that chance, as he's been immediately attacked by prudes and hypocrites.