I'm to the point if a Conservative Democrat were to rise up out of nowhere, I would vote for him, her, or it.  However, I've lost faith in the political party structure as it is.  Both serve the same corporate interests, and as long as that is the case, their ideological differences will be inconsequential.  I don't mean to sound cynical about it, but you cannot convince me that either party offers a viable solution to our nation's ills....especially since they both are responsible for the problems we now face.  They both spend us into the ground, start open ended wars, and try to sell us a bill of goods that never quite pan out as they say.  As long as the American people keep voting in the same elitist club of rulers, we can expect more of the same, and have no one to blame but ourselves.

I tend to agree with you.  Party affiliation does not matter so much as an individuals avowed stance on the issues and history of standing behind their stance.

Isn't a Constitutionalist by definition a constructionist?The whole point of the Constituion is to interpret it in the way the founders wrote and intended it to be read.  It is not like the founders did not leave us enough writings to tell us why they organized things the way they did.  I have never read anything that hints the founders meant the Constitution to be "living document".  If that was the case we would be like France and be on our 5th or 6th Republic by now.

I do however, think they are letting the attacks on the left get to them.  The Tea Party would be better served by ignoring the carping from the Left about the Tea Party being "racist".  If they respond to those attacks they fall into the left's trap and let the left set the tone of the debate. 

And if they don't respond, then it's left (pun intended) up to the media to "explain" it to the public.  The Tea Party, or any good Republican, should just fight back whenever they are attacked personally or ideologically.  I think this was Bush's biggest problem.  He rarely fought back when the  media or Democrats attacked him.

The danger is that the Tea Party folks can get so busy responding to idiotic attacks that they do not get their message out.  One of the strong points of the Tea Party is their faith that the average American is not an idiot as opposed to the left's belief that they are.  If they truly believe that we are not all morons then they have to believe that the Average American can see through the transparent attacks designed to stifle the Tea Party.  Anyone with any sense knows these attacks are meritless and by responding with explanations and expulsions the Tea Party lends some credence to them.  The best thing the Tea Party could do and what I think they should do is dismiss the attacks and continue to drive home the message about smaller, less intrusive government and lower taxes.  Anybody that believes the Tea Party is the modern reincarnation of the KKK as the left would have us believe is not listening to the Tea Party message in the first place.