The issue with many Republican politicians is the way they are “recruited”. Local “sensible” lawyer gets encouraged by the the local “old farts” of the local GOP. These are not the types of folks pushing political “change”. They are either there for themselves, or to push a particular financial agenda.
Folks are gonna have to “infiltrate” the GOP on a local level, and start pushing real conservatives to run.
You saw this, to some extent, with the Tea Party in 2010. The GOP rode this enthusiasm to Senate/Congressional victories in 10/12/14, but basically crapped all over them, treating them like those crazy relatives you don’t invite to Xmas. You’ll notice that the Dems have better sense than to label their “extremists” as wingnuts. They embrace them (or at least, embrace their voting block.
Republicans FINALLY had a base of voters that was willing to protest/raise hell (Tea Party), and they basically blew them off/dismissed them.
