DANIEL HOROWITZ: Blueprint for the new conservatives.

Most of conservative media has already moved on from the spectacular political adultery of last week’s budget betrayal, built on top of an entire year of endless betrayals from GOP leaders. They are all focused on responding to the gun control agenda espoused at the “March for Life.” But what purpose does it serve to fight the Left when we don’t have a Right that is providing an alternative vision on guns or any other issue? The spending betrayal bill included gun provisions that violate every tenet of what was once a universal GOP principle.

Sure, it’s important to combat the Left’s dangerous lies about guns and public safety, but what’s the point of having raucous fans in the bleachers while the team on the field is throwing the ball in the opposite direction? We must win the fight for our own movement and our own party before we can fight the Left.

If you consider yourself a conservative member of Congress, by now you should be asking what the purpose is of serving in that body any longer. But if you deciding to run for re-election, you must ask yourself two important questions: Why are you running, and how will you ensure victory, even in a relatively safe Republican seat, if you continue to get tainted by the sins of the establishment – of both parties?

The only answer to both questions is to disengage from this bog, declare independence, and broadcast a new message and vision to voters. For far too long, we’ve avoided pursuing a new party because it is impossible to create new ground in one election cycle. But it doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. To that end, it’s time for grassroots activists fed up with both parties to pursue a new movement, and it’s time for members of Congress who still believe in our founding principles to break away and help lead that movement.

Read the whole thing. And as Inez Stepman notes, “A quasi third party while maintaining ballot access via GOP is not a bad idea.”