Jim Bopp, Indiana member of the Republican National Committee is circulating the following test for candidates. If Bopp's concept is adopted, a candidate who fails more than three of these questions would not receive RNC funds for their campaign.
(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s "stimulus" bill;
The hypocracy here is sick. If Republicans opposed smaller government, they would not have re-nominated George Bush in 2004 or Ronald Reagan in 1984. Republicans have no problem with big government, big spending and huge deficits. They have problems with not having control of the spending.
(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;
Doesn't this sound yummy? Doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, nursing homes and drug companies can come up with their own reforms. And if patients don't like it they can turn to some other form of medicine.
(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;
Republicans support market based energy reforms. I presume this means they are going to backtrack on their support of ethanol subsidies. The farmers they can grow all the corn for ethanol they want as long as the market will hold up the prices. Works for me. But I don't think that's what they mean.
Since this is juxtaposed as the alternative to cap and trade, I presume it means that we will turn the problems of global warming over to Exxon Mobil and Shell Oil. Good call.
(4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;
Trivia quiz: When was the last time a sentence in a Republican document started with the words "We support workers' rights"?
(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;
How do they manage to make "American" sound like "Borg"?
(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;
Isn't the simplicity of military action in Afghanistan wonderful? I'll bet the former Soviet leadership is kicking itself now for not supporting victory in Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges. Is there anything a surge cannot solve?
(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;
And what, may I ask, is "effective" action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat? A surge? Lower taxes? A market-based solution?
(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;
This is part of their program for a smaller, less intrusive government. They just cannot stand the idea of government in an area of people's lives as intimate and personal as who they will marry. Or things like birth control or abortion.
(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing, denial of health care and government funding of abortion;
Forgive me. I don't have a capacity to be glib about this. Some of the most vulnerable people in the country are those without health insurance. They are one serious illness away from bankruptcy. Nothing in front of Congress right now is great, but Republicans have fought EVERY...SINGLE...effort to bring health care services to the most vulnerable people in our society. The temerity to suggest that they have ANY concern for those who are vulnerable is anathema to their market based, smaller government approach to life. If you start coughing, take two tax breaks and call me in the morning.
(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership.
No Republican purity test is complete without singing a hymn of praise and glory to the 2nd Amendment. They work to shrink all other parts of the Constitution, but the 2nd Amendment is the one area that they seem to support (that area responsible for so many deaths in our society).
So there it is. The proposed GOP loyalty test. I think it’s great. Let's have an election.