Seriously, I get that there exist fiscal conservatives with whom rational discourse is possible. I even know one or two. Where the disconnect happens is when some of these people support the GOP as it exists in 2012. Essentially zero secular fiscal conservatives exist in the Republican Party, and none of have any power or influence on the GOP’s direction, platform, or actions. The near-perfect “party discipline” imposed on Republican elected officials means that opinions outside the platform are essentially irrelevant.
There is no room for you in this party if you would take steps to allow gay Americans to marry. There is no room for you in this party if you think global warming is a problem worth addressing. There is no room for you in this party if you think we should work to ensure access to health care for all Americans, like every other modern democracy. And most of all, there is clearly no room for you in the GOP if you are at all interested in repudiating the excesses of its most conservative, most reactionary, and most hateful segments, because doing so might alienate the base. And so it remains in the GOP’s best interest to encourage precisely those excesses.
Vote GOP, you’re voting for more or less exactly what comes out of Mitch McConnell’s mouth, which differs from what Rick Santorum says only by slight degrees.
This country needs a functional conservative party that actually IS conservative and not some sort of frightening theocratic anti-science, anti-gay, anti-immigrant clusterfuck. It would be nice if the GOP filled that role, but it’s abundantly clear where they’ve made their bed.