Cynicism about Republicans and Others

Anne Applebaum sums up the Alaska senate race between establishment Republican Lisa Murkowski and Tea Partier Joe Miller:

When offered a direct choice, in other words, the majority of Alaskans chose the corrupt, big-spending Republican Party of Murkowski over the shallow, hypocritical radicalism of Miller.

Like Applebaum, I don't think that a majority of Republican voters really wants smaller government; after all, dozens of Republican House candidates ran ads promising to restore Obama's Medicare cuts. But this set me musing: is it really true that our only choice is between, on the one hand, establishment corruption, and on the other, radicalism that is either hypocritical (Newt Gingrich, Rand Paul) or downright insane?