GB, you are a wise man.
It is amazing what you learn when you get really involved. I agree that the vast majority of votes Cornyn has cast are as I would have cast. I also agree that there aren't enough people in office acting to change or repeal bad law.
That is why this healthcare thing isn't going anywhere until, as Dee says, we hit hard bottom.
The growth in entitlement spending has its own momentum, like ocean current. Until we are ready to realize the fact that there isn't such thing as "entitlement" under our Constitutional Republic, our situation is going to continue to worsen.
My mother always said that, "you can't squeeze blood out of a turnip". I feel pretty squeezed.
Dee, I respectfully disagree that 99.9% of Republicans aren't Tea Party material. In fact, the Tea Party movement is the most inclusive group of citizens that I've been around in my lifetime. Indeed, Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and most other persuasions are quite welcome. It is a group of people who own calculators, and know how to use them, and aren't willing to take the words of a politician as fact until proven to be so. We view government as a "necessary evil", as Paine refers.
Our National predicament is no longer Red or Blue (though I am way more Red than Blue). It is one of sanity vs insanity. To that end, I think that most of us will agree.