Small Tent Republicans Would Have Excluded Reagan

[Toro]

Across the land, grindstones sing as axes are sharpened for the RINOs. For years, conservatives have railed against these moderate "Republicans in Name Only," launching primary campaigns against them, pouring money into their opponents' campaign funds, and excluding them from committee chairmanships. But since 2006 the party's pulse has weakened, and the GOP's leaders have decided that nothing is more healthful in such a situation than hacking off a limb or two.

That, evidently, is the thinking behind the 10-point test for GOP candidates that was proposed last week by a group of Republican national committee members. If a candidate "disagrees" with three or more of the points—said disagreement to be determined by one's "voting record, public statements and/or signed questionnaire"—then they can forget about financial support from Republican central. ...

But liberals are not the only impostors abroad in the land. Just as the free-market superstition holds every unpleasant outcome to be traceable to some bit of government economic meddling, so every Republican defeat must automatically be defined as a failure to be conservative enough. Every discredited Republican politician becomes either a traitor or a faker, a secret liberal who somehow pulled the wool over the eyes of the gullible conservative millions. ...

Consider the central article of the first point on the list—a commitment to "lower deficits." That would not only banish former President George W. Bush and many members of the late Republican Congress, since they infamously squandered the surplus and ballooned the deficit, but also former President Ronald Reagan, whom the authors of the 10-point program, in a long preamble to their test questions, hymn as the ne plus ultra of conservatism.

Indeed, the Reagan administration would flunk the test with flying colors. After item one comes item five, which insists that anyone who would call themselves Republican oppose "amnesty for illegal immigrants"; well, it was Reagan who signed into law the 1986 amnesty bill that is so hated by opponents of illegal immigration.

Item No. 7 demands "containment of Iran," a nation to which the Reagan administration sold weapons. Strike three. Take his name off that airport!

Thomas Frank: Conservatives Want Republican Purge Trials - WSJ.com

 

[del]

"We're the new liberals of the Republican party. Can you imagine that?"
barry goldwater to bob dole, circa 1996

the republican party is fubar.

 

[Modbert]

"We're the new liberals of the Republican party. Can you imagine that?"
barry goldwater to bob dole, circa 1996

the republican party is fubar.

Barry Goldwater was right on a lot of things:

"A lot of so-called conservatives don't know what the word means. They think I've turned liberal because I believe a woman has a right to an abortion. That's a decision that's up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders or the Religious Right."

And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of "conservatism."

Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.

 

[blu]

fundies killed the republican party. you can't be for small government while trying to control every personal detail of someone's life. sucks that religious people are so fucking crazy

 

[ihopehefails]

fundies killed the republican party. you can't be for small government while trying to control every personal detail of someone's life. sucks that religious people are so fucking crazy

I would like to know how the f'n crazy christians did anything to force you to practice their religion as in attending their church?

 

[del]

fundies killed the republican party. you can't be for small government while trying to control every personal detail of someone's life. sucks that religious people are so fucking crazy

I would like to know how the f'n crazy christians did anything to force you to practice their religion as in attending their church?

no one said they did.

keep swinging. you crazy fundie, you.

 

[blu]

fundies killed the republican party. you can't be for small government while trying to control every personal detail of someone's life. sucks that religious people are so fucking crazy

I would like to know how the f'n crazy christians did anything to force you to practice their religion as in attending their church?

they didn't but they infiltrated the republican party, brought about an insane amount of social convertism, blackmail politicians when they don't vote along the churches line (see washington dc now, john kerry, abortion, etc). They attempt to legislate morality and force their beliefs onto the rest of the country all while proclaiming to be small gov conservatives.