Hard-line conservatives in the Republican Party have no intention of compromising as they consider which GOP candidates to back next fall, and they won't accommodate themselves to party leaders in Congress or the GOP establishment. In fact, the core conservatives seem more intent than ever on nominating candidates who hew to conservative ideology and oppose President Obama at every turn.

These are some of the findings of a little-known series of focus groups conducted in suburban Cleveland and elsewhere this fall by Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg's research organization, Democracy Corps.

The findings are being discussed by GOP strategists because they provide a clear indication of the growing militancy of the hard right. Republican leaders in Washington say the focus groups reveal an unsettling reality—that the conservative base of the GOP will try to jettison moderate or centrist Republican candidates in favor of ideological conservatives in primary elections across the country.

This happened a few weeks ago in a special election in upstate New York, and in the end the conservative candidate lost. The fear in the Republican establishment is that this dynamic, if replicated across the country, would limit the opportunity of Republicans to field candidates who might appeal to moderates in many general elections.

"The self-identifying conservative Republicans who make up the base of the Republican party stand a world apart from the rest of America, according to focus groups conducted by Democracy Corps," Greenberg and other survey directors said in a recent 18-page memo to party insiders. "These base Republican voters dislike Barack Obama to be sure—which is not very surprising as base Democrats had few positive things to say about George Bush—but these voters identify themselves as part of a 'mocked' minority with a set of shared beliefs and knowledge, and commitment to oppose Obama that sets them apart from the majority in the country. They believe Obama is ruthlessly advancing a 'secret agenda' to bankrupt the United States and dramatically expand government control to an extent nothing short of socialism. While these voters are disdainful of a Republican Party they view to have failed in its mission, they overwhelmingly view a successful Obama presidency as the destruction of this country's founding principles and are committed to seeing the president fail."