Friday, November 27, 2009

The So-Called RNC "Litmus" Test for Republican Candidates

I heard Fox News pundits arguing today over a proposed "Republican Litmus Test" for Republican candidates for office.  Presumably, the RNC would not fund candidates who do not meet 7 of 10 defined principles.

The only source I could immediately find online that deals with the list of 10 was from Alex Knapp from Outside the Beltway.  Alex Knapp is obviously a liberal (only a liberal would disingenously argue that Cap and Trade is a market solution rather than a tax).  However, if Knapp's list of principles is accurate, then some of the items on the list are certainly less than perfect.  The items refer to specific legislation now being debated, but should instead refer to broader principles.

Knapp lists the "litmus test" points as follows, with my suggestions for changes.  The words crossed out are in the original list, the blue text is how I would change it:

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;  new or expanded entitlement programs and supporting the phase-out or privatization of existing ones, and by supporting energy self-sufficiency and economic growth;
(2) We support market-based health care reform, via tort reform and removal of barriers to interstate medical insurance competition, and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare; socialized medicine or federal takeover of the the health care industry;
(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation; through increased domestic drilling, clean coal, oil shale reclamation, the building of nuclear power plants and additional oil refineries; we oppose tax and other regulatory schemes that suppress energy independence, including those based on unproven and dubious theories such as man-made global warming;  
(4) We support workers’ rights to secret ballot by opposing card check; to ensure worker decisions regarding union membership or union policies truly reflect the will of the workers by protecting them from union pressure and intimidation; 
(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants and by effectively policing our national borders; 
(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges; our military through adequate funding, research and development of new weapons systems that will reduce military fatalities in war, and by avoiding military involvement for the purpose of nation building; 
7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea rogue nations who support spreading their ideologies through military force or terrorism, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;
(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;  We support the Tenth Amendment and oppose federal intervention into areas not authorized by the Constitution, leaving those areas to the decisions of the individual states, e.g. marriage and abortion; 
(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  (This is already covered by items 2 & 8)
10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership, except those pertaining to ex-felons or the mentally ill;

That's my take on it.  What's yours?

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