By Nick Kypriotakis | FSUnews.com
I spent a considerable amount of time this week trying to determine exactly what certain members of the GOP were thinking when they attempted to institute a new Conservative Purity Test to judge political candidates across the country.
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Eventually, I gave up.
For those of you that haven’t heard, the neo-cons in Washington have a new set of commandments they’d like to impose upon the American people.
In order for any Republican candidate to receive support from the Republican National Committee, they have to sign off on eight out of 10 newly-mandated, government-approved, “conservative” principles.
Apparently tired of impersonating Barack Obama, Michael Steele has since moved on to a terrible impression of Ronald Reagan. The 10 principles outlined in the Conservative Purity Test are supposed to be akin to 1994’s Contract with America. That sentence is laughable in and of itself, so there is no need to comment further. Suffice it to say, the GOP establishment officially has no new ideas whatsoever.
Notable among the 10 commandments on the GOP Purity Test are No. 8: “We support the Defense of Marriage Act,” and No. 6: “We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by agreeing with military-recommended troop surges.”
As if neo-conservative hypocrites like Newt Gingrich and Mark Sanford needed another reason for people to despise the Republican Party, they’ve demanded the robotic support of every Republican on issues relating to gay marriage and troop increases. What better way to become an “all-inclusive” party than to kick out everyone that doesn’t agree with all of (or at least 80 percent of) Michael Steele’s ludicrous neo-conservative initiatives. Sadly, the RNC is more out of touch than anyone initially anticipated (and that’s saying a lot).
Ultimately, the GOP was trying to purge their party of “liberals” like Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe, Dede Scozzafava and Lincoln Chafee. In doing so, however, they’ve completely abandoned true conservatism and humiliated themselves on the national stage.
The American people seem to have no problem voicing their dissent. They really do not need dishonest politicians and politically-embedded committees tainting their otherwise purist sentiments.
Most conservatives find this embarrassing display of political ineptitude almost as asinine as I do.
In his recent article, “Put Me in the No Camp on the Purity Test,” famed conservative blogger Erick Erickson had this to say about the latest GOP party-foul: “People are naturally inclined to short circuit educational processes. People will look at this list to see if a candidate signed off on the issues. If the candidate did, well by God, they must be Conservative — never mind their voting record or prior statements.
“Besides,” he continued. “The Republican platform specifically says the GOP is opposed to government bailouts of industry, something the GOP, with a Republican president, pushed through Congress in 2008. If the GOP cannot live up to its own platform adopted at a national convention, it sure as heck won’t live up to any pledge put forward by a group of RNC committeemen.”
Erickson hits on an important point.
The Republican National Committee leadership is severely out of touch with its Conservative base. This latest move is just another sad attempt by committee leaders Jim Bopp and Michael Steele to capitalize on the wildly successful (albeit slightly annoying) tea-party and town-hall movements.
While trying to prove their conservative chastity, the Republicans on Capitol Hill are pimping out real conservative principles like independence, dissent and free-thinking for political capital.
It is obvious that these people have no idea what the American people really want and should be removed from their positions immediately.
“So let it be written…” (oh, you know the rest).
