Yes taking control of congress and the presidency are and should be low priority (due to the weakness of that office and our meager means to hold a significant enough weight over them to accomplish the needed goals of decentralization).

But electing a few either incompetent or resolute people in into those offices capable of obstructing/sabotaging the Federal machinery with regard to responding to our States will in the long run be most helpful. That minimal task i think we can accomplish on the federal level even with the corruption, and it could mean a lot to give our State and local official an even stronger hand.

It helps if your opponent either doesn't want to win, or is incompetent. (We can help deliver that to our States)

We need legitimate and sincere competition between federal and state authority, competition grounded in intellectual honesty and the fundamental power-limiting, liberty enhancing premise of the Constitution.

Right now all we have is two different versions of totalitarianism.

If the Tea Party activists really want to gain influence for their views, they need to forget about reanimating the corpse of the RNC and start concentrating on taking over local and state party chapters (Republican or Democrat), then using them as leverage against federal power grabs.

Indeed, whatever the means, reaching the goal is what's important. These Really Tough decisions are just that, REALLY HARD. Yet, as we all know, it's what has to be done and I will only support some candidate that will in some manner support these goals. My only fear is that there aren't any with the intestional fortitutde to say what really must be said.