Harold's Left:

The RNC has published a "purity test" to all Republicans seeking the support of the RNC in the coming election cycle. Any candidate wishing to get the monetary backing of the Republican National Committee will have to pass this test buy believing in seven out of the ten issues which the test iterates. In a party that already defines itself by exclusion, it seems like a backwards strategy from chairman Michael Steele who pledged to open up the party to members of more diverse backgrounds. However, all that this year has proven is that the conservative movement is almost entirely one of disgruntled whites who are proud to be intolerant, racist, xenophobic, and homophobic. Almost nothing about the Republican Party says "inclusion" except an unequivocal dislike for anyone who does not fit into "Sarah Palin's America". You know. The 'real' America; where there are not a bunch of Columbia educated elites, not a bunch of brown folks, not a bunch of young people sympathetic to the causes of the world, not a bunch of non-Christians. This is the America where being intolerant is not only expected, it is encouraged. So without further ado, lets look at the 'purity test' and point out some issues with a few items on the list.

1. We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama's "stimulus" bill

Oh, I must have it backwards then. Because why is it that under both Reagan and Bush II, the deficit ballooned the minute they got in office? Must be that Republican's proposal to fix our ailing economy would have been the tired old trick of cutting taxes on the wealthy and letting the money trickle down to the poor. I should go to some inner city public housing districts or some trailer parks in Appalachia and find out how well that money has been trickling. How the Republicans think that cutting taxes to nothing, plus splurging on illegitimate wars, equals a lower deficit is beyond me.

2. We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare

So in other words the RNC supports private insurance companies over the needs and wants of the American people. Private health insurance is not a 'market-based' system worth preserving. What's the difference between Sprint, GMC, Logitech, Dell, Google, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield?
Well other industries make things and provide useful services, private insurance companies collect money, trim a sizable profit, and promptly figure out ways to con you out getting effective health care.

3. We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation

According to conservatives; global warming, inertia, love, gravity, molecules, evolution, and science are all things made up by the liberal elite to confuse you.

4. We support workers' right to secret ballot by opposing card check

5. We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants

Notice their play on nativism here. They had to qualify their support for legal immigration (which I'm sure they would love to oppose especially if it means upping the number of brown folks) with the qualifier of "and assimilation into American society".

6. We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges

When does the military not recommend more war? Hence this is why the military is ultimately run by civilians like the President and Sec Def, because when you ask battle-hardened generals what their recommendation would be for the future of any military conflict they will always say "more conflict".

7. We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat

One of the only items on this list you will be hard pressed to fine many Democrats or Republicans who disagree with it.

8. We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act

DOMA should be repealed. Period. There is almost no major legislation out there that is a greater threat to the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment that this one.

9. We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing, denial of health care and government funding of abortion

This is ridiculous logic here. The only folks that have been denying coverage are the bozos in the private insurance companies that the RNC so happily supports. In my five years under the military's government-run, single-payer system, TRICARE, denial of services to myself or my family was not even a remote possibility. Question for Republicans: If the private insurance system is so good, why do we not let our veterans return home from war and fall under it? Could you image, I would get dropped from coverage because I got injured in the mountains of Afghnaistan (which I did) because private insurance will only find ways to drop you.

10. We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership

Yup, don't restrict anything. Let everything be legal under the guise of 'arms'. You want a Howitzer artillery battery in your front lawn? Cool, it falls under arms and should not be restricted. You want to mount M240B, 7.62 Caliber, belt-fed, machine guns on your roof? No problem, it constitutes 'arms' and individual liberty.



This list is a blessing for progressives because it only further allows us to expand out tent beyond the majority we already have and to shrink their tent to just a small cardboard box on the National Mall.

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