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from the outside most people view america's political battles from a rep. v. dem. point of view. it's conservatives versus liberals, one side against the other. and from the outside of the democratic party, i have to say that the dems look pretty homogeneous. there is a clear cut pecking order, everyone is a party player, and on the whole, they put up a more unified front. obviously to differing degrees of fanaticism, but everyone pretty much seems to agree that more and bigger government is the way to go.

as a conservative, my view of the republican party is anything but unified and committed to conservativism. in a way, i feel like most democrats are perfectly happy being democrats. but as a conservative, i am STUCK with republican party. why do i say that? well, because real conservativism has been absent from the republican party for a while now. instead, we've been subject to the whims of the republican establishment, which is nearly as bad as the democrat establishment. when you hear the left talk about republicans as hypocrites, and just as bad as democrats, these are the republicans they're talking about. they are the power players within the republican party. republican elitists if you will, who are playing the same game as the democratic elitists. these people are party players too, and they want the same piece of the pie that the democrats have. they are just as much for big powerful government as the dems, and have just as little faith in the little guy, they only veer when it comes to social issues.

the republican establishment's choice in presidential candidates is represented in people like romney, mitch daniels, and jon huntsman. these are people who feel we need to be seen "moderates" and we don't really need to stick with conservativism, we need to just kind of go with the flow. in essence, they're wishy washy, and are trying to imitate the democrats a little. they want to beat the democrats, but they want to beat them at their own game. ironically enough, bush and the neo-cons were also big government republicans. and even if a romney were to win, it wouldn't be long before the media and the left were treating him as if he were a bush too.

so because of our very philosophy of bottom up anti-establishment-ism, conservatives are in an uphill fight not only with the democratic establishment, but also the wing of the establishment that represents the right. even within our own ranks we are classed as zealots and crazy right wing fanatics, all because we aren't hypocrites, and we actually DO believe our message of smaller, less intrusive government. what? you still actually believe in the principles of the founding of this country? haven't we "progressed" a little too much for that?

this is why at first, the tea party was a perfect representation of the conservative movement, but even now it is the process of being co-opted by the establishment, and being used simply for its momentum. while that may be the case, and i don't like the national organization that sprang up around it, i can tell you that the mood behind the tea party, behind the conservative awakening, still exists in the hearts of all those little people that banded together and began the movement. this is leading to a sharper contrast between the principles of limited, responsible government, and the big government centralize power principles of the left. and i feel like that contrast is a good thing.

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This sounds like a good argument for doing away with the current dichotomy the People for some reason have almost always supported.  If the Tea Party types and the libertarians split with the Republicans and made their own parties, we would see the Republicans become much more centrist.  If those with further left views in the Democratic party likewise split the Democraps would move toward the center as well.  I think with a system like this more people would actually get their views represented and the government would function more smoothly (it would be much harder for one part to dominate independently, so they would be forced to work together).

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RINOs have ruined the GOP.  And no, you arent stuck with the Republican Party.  I'm no tea partier personally, but I suspect the presence of the Tea Party may be a good thing for the GOP by reminding them how dissatisfied people are becoming with the GOP.