Whew!

It’s a good thing I don’t have to worry about the GOP Purity Test should I ever decide to run for public office as a Republican. The RNC has decided not to endorse the proposal.

Just for laughs, let’s see how I would do on the test:

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Republican National Committee identifies ten (10) key public policy positions for the 2010 election cycle, which the Republican National Committee expects its public officials and candidates to support:


(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;

A lot of this sounds good in theory. After all, who wouldn’t like to pay less in taxes? However, what programs do you actually cut? That’s where the rubber meets the road. Defense? Social programs? It’s too complex to just say you want smaller government. And I have to disagree with opposing bills like the Stimulus. While it’s not completely clear how well the Stimulus worked, I shudder to think what may have happened had we not temporarily infused additional government spending into the economy.

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

Once again, in theory it might make sense. But what do we do about Medicaid and Medicare? Isn’t that “Obama-style government run healthcare”? On top of that it’s not a foregone conclusion that any so-called “Obama Plan” will include socialized medicine or even a public option. Reform needs to be done, and for many people it needs to be done quickly, especially the tens of millions of people in this country who are uninsured or underinsured. Will “market-based health care reform” do that for us? The statement is too vague to answer properly.

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;

The question here is: Are they opposed to cap-and-trade as part of energy reforms, or are they merely opposed to reducing carbon emissions because they don’t believe in global climate change? Cap-and-trade was effective in helping to address acid rain, but a plan like cap-and-dividend might work even better in battling climate change.

(4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;

I'm not a big fan of card check (or unions for that matter), but the current system for forming unions has many weaknesses too. I don’t know if card check is the answer, but things need to be changed somehow.

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

It may be that amnesty is the least of all evils. We don't have the resources to round up and return illegal immigrants to their home countries. It would probably be less expensive to grant them amnesty and devote our resources to securing our borders.

(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;

I’m not even sure we can identify “victory” in either Iraq or Afghanistan, let alone can count on troop surges to help insure it. Again, this is a much more complicated issue than the pledge alludes to.

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

I agree with this because of the instability of their respective governments. But really, what legal basis do we have to take action? Who gets to pick and choose what countries have nuclear weapons and which don’t?

(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;

I am unambiguously opposed to the Defense of Marriage Act. It is archaic, discriminatory and probably unconstitutional.

(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and

I also oppose health care rationing and denial of health care. The abortion issue is a bit more complicated, however. While I am personally opposed to abortion in most circumstances, there is some precedent for government-funded abortions. Currently, Medicaid is required to cover abortions in the cases of rape, incest and the endangerment of the mother’s life. In some states Medicaid covers all abortions. With health care reform (assuming there is a government-funded piece) these differing policies need to be streamlined.

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

Opposing all government restrictions on gun ownership? That’s insane. Or are they opposed to new government restrictions on gun ownership? We may need a little more clarity here.

and be further


RESOLVED, that a candidate who disagrees with three or more of the above stated public policy position of the Republican National Committee, as identified by the voting record, public statements and/or signed questionnaire of the candidate, shall not be eligible for financial support and endorsement by the Republican National Committee.



Some people might think that I really didn’t provide specific replies to the statements, but that is precisely my point – the statements are too ambiguous to simply say “I agree” or “I disagree.” Not to mention that the entire test is very exclusionary and polarizing. In my not-so-humble opinion, the GOP needs to be more inclusive to be successful, not less inclusive.