Why Republicans appear unified while Dems form circular firing squads.

"While a solid majority of Republicans are on the same page -- 73% call themselves conservative -- Democrats are more of a mixture. The major division among Democrats is between self-defined moderates (40%) and liberals (38%). However, an additional 22% of Democrats consider themselves conservative, much higher than the 3% of Republicans identifying as liberal."

http://www.gallup.com/poll/120857/conservatives-single-largest-ideological-group.aspx

There never really can be peace, harmony and unity of purpose here at DU as it's members are a mix of moderates, pragmatic liberals, liberal idealists, socialists, Naderites, etc. and maybe even a few conservative Democrats. Intense debate and all out fights are to be expected and maybe accepted within reason. That could be for the best as it ought to allow the exchange of ideas as long as most are willing to at least consider differing opinions with an open mind. Being forced to defend one's position and to do research to counter another's view allows one to grow and learn whilst being in a forum that's an echo chamber is where a person will stagnate.

How would you describe your political views: (very conservative, conservative, (or) moderate liberal, (or) very liberal)?

Conservatives get lumped together while liberals get divided. Why not very conservative, conservative, (or) moderate,(or) liberal, very liberal?

very conservative(9%), conservative(31%), moderate(35%), liberal(16%), very liberal(5%) and no opinion(4%).

There is only one type of Republican: Corrupt.

There are two types of Democrats: Corrupt and Not Corrupt. That's the real infighting in the Democratic Party, and its perfectly appropriate. These days "right-wing" seems to be synonymous with corrupt, and the corrupt elements on the right of the party try their best to frame this as an ideological fight. It is not. It's a power struggle between those in the party bought and paid for by corporate interests and those who still honestly try to work for their voters.

There are Republicans who aren't corrupt.

However, I do think to be a Republican you have to be either greedy or stupid.

Greedy: "I got mine; screw you."

Stupid: "Them gol-durned Democrats are a-fixin' ta take ma guns!"

There, you have it.

I think to be a Republican you have to be from a parallel universe, somewhere beyond the looking glass. Somehow their "logic" makes sense to them.

The whole reason the tea bag group got started is because they felt that the republicans were becoming too moderate. There were alot of republicans who did not like the fact that McCain won the nomination in the presidential election. They would have prefferred a more conservative republican.