The so-called purity test is a 10-point checklist -- a suicide pact, really -- of alleged Republican positions. Anyone hoping to play on Team GOP would have to sign off on eight of the 10 -- through their voting records, public statements or a questionnaire. The test will be put up for consideration before the Republican National Committee when it meets early next year in Hawaii.
The list apparently evolved in response to the Republican loss in the recent congressional race in Upstate New York, when liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava withdrew from the race under pressure from conservatives and endorsed Democrat Bill Owens, who won. Republicans had held that seat for more than a century.
What Kathleen doesn't mention is what exactly is a "republican" and how do you distinguish from someone who calls themselves a democrat and vice versa.
Look, as far as I'm concerned the party label doesn't mean anything to me to begin with because of the fact that party labels are a distinction without a difference. But at some point the labels need to mean something.
I guess for Parker, it's better to have a republican like Dede win this past election ( she was going to get her ass kicked by the way) yet conservatives had absolutely no voice in this past election had it not been for Doug Hoffman. Isn't that inherently unamerican?
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2 comments:
I say forget the litmus test. To me it's another way for republican party bosses to control who gets to claim their brand. The litmus seems like a back door way to have a pre primary primary for conservatives. Here's the deal. The place for conservatives to be heard is in the primaries --- period. We let moderates and the NYT pick our presidential candidate and look what happened. Mccain's nomination was a green light for the dems to go hard hard left. Now look at the mess this country is in.
We conservatives need two things to happen. One, we need America to be educated on how left leaning politicians are making things worse for the middle class. Two, we need to nominate conservatives in primaries. Obama is helping out with the first. It's up to us to show up for the second.
If we put true conservatives up for election we have a better chance to win the general. But even if we don't we will succeed in moving the debate to the right. Lately the debate has been moving unchecked leftward.
Here's a twist. How about we have a litmus test for journalists who call themselves conservative (Parker, Brooks, etc.)
These people pride themselves on being "in the center right"; the voice of reason in a world of extremes. Their self declared contriubution to the cause is to reign in the right wing to the center to make the Republican party more marketable to the overall electorate.
But, if the center is such a great place to be, why do we never see them appealing to the wing nuts on the left to come to the same center? Or to the perfect centrists to go a little right?
Take a close look. Most political commentators who call themselves conservative centrist may state a right-of-center stance. But their message is almost always targeted to those on their right. And the message is always for those on their right to come to their utopia at the center.
So when viewed in terms of their influence on the electorate as a whole, they ultimately have a net persuasive pull leftward.
But look at the totality of elected officials in this country. The median position is far to the left of Kathleen Parker's stated positions. If she really believed that her positions were the correct one's she would be working to get the median to move right. Her work to move the conservative base leftward achieves the exact opposite.
I guess my point is this: The last person the republicans should be taking direction from is Kathleen Parker.
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