CNN Political Ticker: AlCNN Poll: Majority says government a threat to citizens’ rights

The survey indicates a partisan divide on the question: only 37 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of Independents and nearly 7 in 10 Republicans say the federal government poses a threat to the rights of Americans.

I point this out for the benefit my libertarian friends who keep telling me there is no difference between the Democrats and Republicans.
It is true that there are a number of Republican Party officials whose behavior in office - either personally or professionally, and sometimes both - has been less than stellar. On the other hand, it is much more difficult to find a Democrat Party official worthy of praise. Add in the current prevalence of Democrats in high office and one sees a rather stark difference between officials of the two major parties.

But, my larger point is that any serious effort to address this problem at the polls has a much better chance by starting with the GOP rather than frittering away effort on the Libertarian Party, Constitution Party and other third parties, let alone the utter fool's errand known as Get Out Of Our House (GOOOH).

There are too many places where RINOs are in control of the Republican Party structure or winning GOP primaries. If even half of those independents and third party folks who agree with conservative Republicans on many of the major issues would quit complaining and join us, we could again have the sort of party that could nominate a Goldwater or Reagan, if we can find one.

I'm showing my age already, so I'll throw in a little anecdote. In the summer of 1969, after my second year at UVa, I was a chaperone at the Teen-Age Republican National Leadership Conference in DC. One of our more colorful speakers issued a challenge to the eager young folks there to take over the party so that a man like Gov. Nelson Rockefeller could not win a Republican primary.

We've still got a ways to go in meeting that challenge, but the ebbs and flows of conservative fortunes over the intervening years convince me that it is possible. And, the precarious position of our federal republic makes it more urgent now than it was four decades ago.