Traditional & Conned

These are old-school Midwestern-type Republicans, hungry for the good old days, less business regulation, decreased immigration, ambivalent foreign trading partners, and the protection of the established "meritocratic" (which includes, in their opinion, the middle class and business class) elite.

Government spending: Against, except for farm stuff
Aggressive foreign policy: For, but not too aggressive
Immigration: Anti
Traditional values: For - but not too preachy
Notables: My Dad, Chuck Percy, Eisenhower, Everett Dirksen, Chuck Hagel?

There are a lot of Republicans out there that have missed the fact that their party was sold out from under them. Some of them are tuning in, now, belatedly, and without an appropriate amount of responsibility for having let it happen. They're not racist, they're not Christianist, they're not corporatist. They want good government, small (but not drownable) government, opportunity for all (but don't take away mine!), and relatively little intrusion into personal and social lives.

Some of them are winnable, the others not. We should hope they are all mad as hell after we destroy the GOP in November, and aim their anger - appropriately - at the insane clown posse that dominated their party.

It's too easy, and intellectually lazy, to ascribe evil to every last one of them.

For me, personally, that doesn't pass the "Mom & Dad test." They raised me on values that, to me, have made me a fire-breathing progressive activist. Yet they're still Republicans. I need a better answer than "evil."