Today I rescind all association with the Republican Party.  I will no longer allow my vote to be taken for granted by an entity whose interests have diverged so far from my own over the past quarter-century.  I will never again vote for a Republican candidate simply because he or she is less evil than his or her Democratic counterpart.  I'm tired of compromising my principles to support a party that has none.

Don't try to feed me the line that "I'm just playing into the Democrats' hands" or "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater."  The Republican bathwater has become so fouled by such stalwarts as Lindsey Graham and John McCain and their ilk that the poor baby immersed in it can no longer help being permanently corrupted and infected by it.  Look what it did to baby Marco, who just a few short months ago many were touting as the coming Conservative Messiah.  I'm happy to say I wasn't among them, but many feel extremely betrayed, and rightly so.  Be very careful, Senator Ayotte.

We often criticize black voters for their undying allegiance to the Democratic Party, which has operated counter to their interests for decades.  By giving the same measure of allegiance to the Republican Party, we conservatives are no better.  It's like battered wife syndrome: they promise us they won't do it again, and we keep supporting them and coming back for more.

In 2008, they gave us John McCain.  Most of us held our noses and voted for him.  In the 2010 midterms amid the Tea Party ascension, we come out en masse to take back the House and make advances in the Senate and many state houses.

What did we get for our efforts?  Mitt Romney in 2012.  Not a bad guy in my estimation, but about as progressive a Republican as one could hope for, assuming one who hopes for such things.  I voted for him in the "I'd vote for Charlie Sheen before Obama" spirit, but many conservatives decided that they had taken just about enough from the Republican Establishment and stayed home.

Many may see this as cutting off your nose to spite your face, and they may be right.  I don't know.  I'm not Karl Rove.  But there are millions of disaffected right-leaning voters out there nonetheless, as they very clearly demonstrated in 2012.  Ignore them, again, at your peril.

Twenty-fourteen will be very interesting, and perhaps a last gasp at thwarting the progressive march forward, if Grahamnesty hasn't already sealed the deal.  We'll see how many progressive Republicans and Democrats from purple districts who supported the immigration deal get primaried or voted out in the general election.

This will set the stage for 2016 -- Hillary vs. ?  Will it be a Ted Cruz or a Lindsey Graham?  The latter will ring the death knell for conservative support of the GOP, if it hasn't already been relegated to the dustbin of history by then.