The conservative movement in this country doesn't believe in conservative principles. They believe in using cynical politics to force their vision of morality on everyone.
Take abortion. Excluding the Recreational Institute of Aborting Americana, we all want fewer abortions. Certainly stuff like partial birth abortion is an affront to human dignity. But is chanting "baby killers" really going to make the number of abortions go down?
They say it's murder, but they certainly don't act that way. If close to a million people are getting murdered a year, we should stop at nothing to correct that. Surely, supporting comprehensive sex education and the plentiful abundance of condoms would be small price to pay. Remember, hundreds of thousands of murders would be prevented.
But no, those who chant "baby killers" will instead support the politicians who want to criminalize abortion, even though they oppose the birth control and welfare policies which could actually make the abortion rate go down. Excuse me, I'll be crying in the corner at how you value your "christian values" over the lives of millions.
The "principles" that the conservative movement is calling for a return to these days have no appeal to me. They don't have a dream for a better society, they have a dream of a better attack ad. Honestly, the democrats seem to respect what I think are conservative values a lot better then the republicans at this point.
The last republican I could have vote for was Wayne Gilchrest. It wasn't because he was a "centrist", it was because he cared about being a good house member more then being a good party member. I didn't agree with everything he supported, but I could trust his judgement. But Gilchest lost his seat in 2008, replaced by a democrat. The democrats didn't beat him though, he was too popular for that to ever happen. Gilchrest lost in a primary challenge to a Republican who said he wasn't conservative enough.