I don't think that there will be another general election. Either the total economic crash will cause the USSA to break up, or Obama will be Emporer for Life by then
You are WAY too wrapped up in the lie that your vote actually matters.
The men that run the machine don't care if a new cog gets installed every 4 to 8 years, or if it came from the D or R cog-making factory, any more than you care when you receive change at the grocery store if your coins have a P or a D stamp for the mint they came from. It's about that important to them.
We'll get to vote again. And it'll make about as much effect as if you were a numismatist, sifting through the wal-mart cash registers for morgan dollars. Ain't gonna matter how much you look, they won't have any.
"The Base" that your refer to is not enough anymore. The demographics just aren't there. The Base is outnumbered. It will never be sufficient to elect a Republican, no matter how fired up The Base gets; it's not a matter of the Republican party finding the right subtle McCainPalinRomneyRyan.
I think the only chance the R party has is to go balls-to-the-wall libertarian with their candidates. The candidates they have been running haven't been getting the job done, and it's not because they aren't Republican enough. It's that there aren't enough Republicans anymore. They are dying off and Democrats keep getting elected because their candidates are more hip. Even as un-hip as Obama is after his first term, he still compares favorably in hipness to the tragically un-hip Romney. The only hope for opposing the Democratic party now is a libertarian candidate that will get the votes of the current Republican base )who will vote for anybody but the Democrat), and which urban middle-classers are not ashamed to admit voting for.
With our current voting system, losing by a little is the same as not even running. Tell me, if the Republican party had nominated Ron Paul, could they possibly have done any worse? No.
This is about the smartest thing the Stoopid Party could do.
The young, hip electorate:
-hates wars
-hates government legislating morality
-hates taxes
-doesn't attend church to the degree that R's wants it to, and isn't going to change that
-refuses to be enslaved by the Baby Boomer Generation any more
THAT is why Ron Paul had a viral campaign exploding with hip youth energy and volunteerism.
I remember my grandparents asking me what I saw in this stodgy, tiny, shambling, funny-looking 70-something year old man, and how he could possibly resonate so effectively with so many young people. We had a GREAT conversation about what he represented, and my grandparents really respected it.