Republicans are very talented at forgetting what they have in common while simultaneously overblowing their differences. They are very poor at bridging their differences to form winning coalitions. In a state like California, where Dem registrations significantly outstrip Rep, Republicans need large turnouts of their own voters, plus they need to peel enough votes from the mushy middle in order to win. Anyone who doesn't understand the reality and implication of this situation is dumber than a box of rocks as regards politics.
Like Nero fiddling while Rome burned around him, one can stand rigidly on principle while resigning oneself to perpetual subjugation. Or one can learn that politics is the art of consensus-building. It took six long, difficult years from the Boston Massacre in 1770 for the 13 colonies to reach the consensus necessary to unanimously declare independence from Britian in 1776.
The road to independence was paved with debate after debate; the work of two Continental Congresses; the burnings of several American costal towns by the British; the bravery of the volunteers at Lexington, Concord and the siege of Boston. It was paved with attempts at persuasion by both radicals for independence and the conservatives of that day -- those who wanted to reconcile with Britain. It was paved by sacrifice, hard work, sweat and many, many tears. Even as late as the spring of 1776, a move toward independence was by no means a certainty.
The true "greatest generation" bequeathed to us a nation founded through the art of political persuasion -- its very nationhood secured by that most politically persuasive of all documents, the Declaration of Independence. It's main purpose was to invite the established powers of the day to recognize our new nation. Are we then, today, so blind to their political legacy as to hold ourselves as arrogantly above our obligation to persuade and consensus-build as was the British Crown of their day?