schism within the Republicans-- how does the party stay together?

[liberalcapitalist]

The Republican Party is not truly a national party, but a coalition of various interests, loosely connected. Where they differ from liberals is in their ability to reconcile with one another for a common good-- or better yet, in their eyes, the lesser of two common evils.

#1: Goldwater Libertarians: Feel that all government is bad. Less government is good. State's rights, though not from a racist perspective. Their views on subjects such as gay rights, abortion, etc. are varient, but tend to fall on the moderate or liberal side of things.

#2: Religious Right: You know these guys well. However, I think there is a difference between the typical RR and the Buchanite variety. The true RR cares nothing about immigration, job loss, free trade, etc. They care only about the promotion of Christian ideals, or what they perceive them to be.

#3: Billionare Boys Club: The guys with the $100,000 tax cuts from Bush. They could care less about abortion, gays, religion, or anything else-- they just want their money. The most powerful, though smallest group.

#4: The Cultural Republicans: They've voted Republican because they always have. They're not really libertarians, they're not all that religious, and they're certainly not billionaires. These people are like poor southern whites who endorsed slavery in the 1800's, even though it worked agains them. They are contributing to their own downfall, yet are blind to this, and NOTHING will ever make most of them see.

#5: Bushites: These are political insiders (very small group) who believe in military pre-emption, world domination, and subversion of democracy. They throw bones to the religious right, and are funded by the corporations that dominate group #2, but they've completely abandonded the Goldwater Libertarians and the protectionists (too small of a group to count) to the extent that they could bolt from the party in '04.

As progressives, we have to save the saveables, and ignore those who will never listen. Religious righties are off limits-- they do not listen to reason as a matter of practice. Billionaires (I'm exagerating, of course) are small in number and unlikely to jump ship; though if they were smart they were (Bush's economy will eventually make everyone poor). The Cultural Republicans are actually probably the HARDEST group to reach, since they don't vote based on anything other than familiarity. They don't follow the news or issues, so they're, for the most part, a lost cause. And the libertarian types; well, they would probably rather just stay home than to vote for a Democrat.... With all this said, I think the best strategy is to somehow find a third-party candidate who could unite some of these interests. Buchanan is teh best candidate. he is a straight-talker who could appeal to the cultural types; he has appeal with the RR; and he could possibly even swing some libertarians, despite his theocratic social views. He says there's no chance of him running, but is there anything we could do to change his mind?