...most conservatives don't agree with the extremists in their midst.

They just know they are losing the intellectual and moral battle along with the demographic one, so they can't afford to alienate the trailer trash, banjo-plucking, inbred, flat-earth, bible-banging wing of the party. This is what really showcases the spiritual bankruptcy of this philosophy, not that they accept these barbarians, but that they depend on their support and their votes so badly they feel the need to pander to them and look the other way while they ejaculate these petty little outrages with impunity.

Remember the birthers? The creationists? The swiftboaters? The denialists? That these cretins now have staked out an influential role in one of America's political parties is not the real surprise, its those supposedly rational "moderates" and intellectuals in that party who look the other way and pretend they don't exist. I suppose if they ever do attain the political hegemony they seek, they have convinced themselves they will somehow be able to control these barbarians.

And they really believe we haven't noticed.