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When Shelby switched, I supported him, too, thinking he was simply being true to his conservative roots.

Now I’m not so sure.

Isn’t there some sort of axiom here? The longer someone stays in a political party the more easily co-opted they are by the leadership—?? Power and privilege accumulates over time and the party knows how to dole it out and then threaten one’s grasp on it.

By this reckoning, Ted Cruz can’t really remain Ted Cruz without eventually leaving the Republicans. Look at Rubio and Rand Paul. It took them less than a term in office to flop like fish on the deck. Rubio is dead to me as a conservative and Paul is at best a borderliner. But they both have a big future in the Republican party.

Palin has no future in the party because she won’t do what many of the others have already done—sell a piece of herself for a bit of power and privilege.

I’m a de facto “third party person” only because the only national candidate I could fathom has no place in the other two parties.