[Cboldt]

-- I'm talking to anyone who claims the country needs a "third party" or that Republicans should self-destruct like the old Whigs. --

My point was that if the GOP goes down the drain, it is the GOP's fault. There is no sense of "should" in that, merely an assignment of blame if the party loses ground.

-- How do you suppose Democrats first became the dominant party, and have kept dominance all these -- not just years, not just decades -- centuries! ? --

By promising and delivering money from the public treasury, to its constituents. And it seems to me, the GOP is going down the same path. After all, that is how elections are won in political systems that adopt universal suffrage.

-- Today the GOP stands on the verge of a historic election victory, if we don't screw it up. --

Who is "we," kemosabe? Voters choose on the basis of self-interest, and the success of a party depends on the party's appeal to voters. The way I see it, when the GOP loses, it is the GOP's fault.

-- The country is rightly sick of Barack, Harry, Nancy & and all their Dems, and is more than ready for new leadership. --

I don't see the GOP supplying leadership, at this point. Just a watered-down flavor of "money for you, from the public treasury." Both parties are parties of solutions by the government.

I've voted all my life too, never for a DEM, and refuse to cast a ballot for Snowe, Collins, and a handful of other good-for-nothing GOP politicians. I find them to be incompetent, destructive, and dishonest. I will not, of my free will, help legitimize an out-of-control government by endorsing them or their likes.

In the Mississippi election, my order of preference in the general would be McDaniels, Childers, Cochran; and I wouldn't vote for Cochran. That order of preference, and refusal to support Cochran, is driven by the actions of Cochran and his support team. I'd much prefer them to act responsibly, but they choose not to.

[BroJoeK]

Cboldt: "My point was that if the GOP goes down the drain, it is the GOP's fault."

The GOP will not "go down the drain" unless somebody pushes it there, and the reasons are simple:

1. In every state, even the most liberal, you have big-city Big-Government machine Democrats in control of urban areas, with small-town, smaller-government Republicans in more rural areas.
   Doesn't matter if we're talking North, South, East or West, this pattern is consistent across the country, election after election.

2. So the political battle-ground is suburbia -- call them "soccer moms" or whatever -- they can be influenced, and will change their votes as they "feeeeel" the need.
   It's why, to cite one example: Bush Younger ran as "Compassionate Conservative".
   At the time, remember, we thought, "Oh, isn't that cute, 'compassionate', for goodness sake."
   Little did we grasp that "compassionate" is just dog-whistle language for "big-spending liberal".

3. You may remember, Bush went to the 2000 convention with 1,526 delegates, runner up was John McCain with 256, and after them came Steve Forbes with 10 and Gary Bauer with 2!.
   The others -- i.e., Pat Buchanan, Herman Cain, John Kasich -- all withdrew a year earlier.
   Point is: there were no serious conservatives in that race.
   So November's choice came down to Bush's "compassion" versus AlGore's stark raving lunacy.
   Soccer moms chose "compassion" and the rest, as they say, is history.

4. Remember too, we already have various "Third Parties", including Libertarians (1.2 million votes in 2012) and the Constitution Party (122,000 votes).
   But most voters understand they have no chance to win, and could easily cause the "lesser of two evils" to lose.

Cboldt: "By promising and delivering money from the public treasury, to its constituents.
And it seems to me, the GOP is going down the same path."

Republicans have never been the Conservative Party, for the simple reason, there aren't enough true conservatives nationwide to ever make a majority.
But Republicans have always been more conservative than Liberal/Progressive Democrats.
In national elections, conservative "third parties" (Libertarians, Constitutionalists) win about 1% of the popular vote.

If you wish to join the Libertarians or Constitutionalists, I'd say: go right ahead.
But no good can be accomplished by splitting Republicans into ever smaller minorities, thus guaranteeing Big-Government Democrats perpetual rule.

Cboldt: "The way I see it, when the GOP loses, it is the GOP's fault."

Well, of course, in a sense, though it's hard to see what "fault" Republicans have for losing, say, 93% of Black votes, or even 71% of Hispanic votes.

Cboldt: "Just a watered-down flavor of "money for you, from the public treasury."
Both parties are parties of solutions by the government."

Specifically, talking about Thad Cochran in Mississippi, sure.
He's a former Democrat, can think & act like Democrats.
But Republicans generally have always been more conservative than Democrats, and even more so since the 1960s.
Now, if you wish to be a "pure conservative", then you can join the political 1% who votes for Libertarian and Constitution Party candidates.

Cboldt: "In the Mississippi election, my order of preference in the general would be McDaniels, Childers, Cochran; and I wouldn't vote for Cochran."

Cochran's life-time ACU voting score is 79%, which puts him around mid-point amongst Republicans.
Cochran's 2013 ACU score is only 60%, which means he is slip-sliding away, but it's the same score as Mississippi's other Senator, Wicker, and better than Georgia's two Republican Senators, Chambliss & Isakson.

By stark contrast, the most "conservative" Democrat Senator, West Virginia's Manchin gets a 28% score from ACU -- the same as your own dearly beloved Republican Susan Collins. ;-)
So, one could well argue that between R-Collins and D-Manchin, there's no serious difference.

But there certainly is serious difference between, say, your Senator Collins (28%) and Mississippi Senator Cochran (60%).
And even bigger difference between Republican Cochran (60%) and a nearby Democrat like, say, Louisiana's Mary Landreu (12%).

So, I'd say anybody who'd throw away a 60%er in favor of a 12%er, should spend some quality time questioning their own sanity, FRiend.