Call them “the religious right”, “the loony right” or whatever. Don’t call them Republicans, because that’s insulting to moderate Republicans like my parents. The loony rightists may be in charge, but that doesn’t mean that all Republicans agree with them on everything. We’ve all voted for candidates we didn’t agree with on every issue- if we didn’t, we’d never be able to vote for anybody.
I’ll say you could- you’ve got the same first name 
Methinks Evil Captor doth protest too much…(wink)
If he’s often mistaken for you, I can see why. 
Der Trihs, do you actually know any Republicans? Not just on messageboards, but in real life? The conservatives I know (and love) are not “bigots, amoral capitalists, or religious fanatics.” Yes, there are plenty of whackaloon Republicans, but heaven knows, there are plenty of whackaloon Democrats, too. The folks I know, regardless of where we fall on the spectrum, feel like we’re supporting the lesser of two evils. Our lesser evils just differ from one another’s.
My father, as I said.
As I’ve said, it doesn’t really matter if I’m right or not about the “whackaloons” being the majority; what matters is that they run the party, and have for as long as I can remember. As far as the “lesser of two evils” go, when I look at what the Republicans have done and are trying to do, I have no interest in compromising someone who considers, say, a national health care plan and gay marriage a worse evil than the Iraq war.
And as I’ve said over and over, I don’t believe the Republicans will compromise, given any choice at all.