If I'm to be accepted as someone rational, I must admit how terrible my politics are. YAY!!!
Now...if you want me to name three things wrong with the GOP, that is really quite easy. I'm conservative, but I'm not a republican and have little interest in "defending my party" since I don't have one.
I believe the GOP suffers from more than three huge problems, but I'll give you the first three that come to mind.
1) They do not project a coherent, unifying vision of what a society would look like should they construct one unopposed. They leave people thinking that they are opposed to things, but not in favor of other things...and even when they discuss what they want, it isn't in the form of how what they want will address real problems many of us are facing. Conservative scholars do this regularly, but the politicians do not.
2) They spend far too much time worrying about what the media thinks of them and focus-group-testing what they will say and do. The media is hostile to conservatives (other than Fox) right now, they have to overcome this problem not by combating the media angrily, not by avoid confrontations with the media, and not by giving up their principles...but by going around the media and making their case directly to the people.
3) They frequently get caught up in kicking around political footballs instead of picking the battles that they can actually win at a given time and fighting for those.
I don't believe there is anything particularly wrong with the underpinning core philosophy of Americanism (which is the philosophy that conservatives wish to conserve). Read Dennis Prager's book on the subject of Americanism, Leftism, and Islamism to get a clear definition of what I mean by Americanism. Their methods for achieving that goal, however, are frequently lacking in field vision.
And...like all political parties...they serve financial backers...it is an ugly reality of the politics of a republic. It means that their principles sometimes get lost to the needs of their sponsors. Which is why the tea party even exists, although I do not consider myself a member of that group.
I don't believe I am "caught up" defending a party...I believe my arguments regarding Europe's fate are grounded in history and human nature...and I believe that we will watch a lot of very bad things unfold unless the left realizes, in time, that they will not survive the rise of Islamism without a fight.