by Jules Witcover

The Republican Party that trusted its fortunes to itsconservative base last year and paid the price in loss of the WhiteHouse and Congress is now being pressured by its truebelievers to dig itself into an even deeper hole.

A group of 11 Republican National Committee members whohope to revive the party by shouting "socialism" against PresidentObama's domestic agenda, and by opposing his foreign policies, wants toimpose a 10-point "purity test" for awarding campaign money andendorsements to Republican candidates for office next year.

Their resolution notes that their ideological hero, Ronald Reagan, believed the party "should welcome those with diverseviews" and that "someone who agreed with him eight out of ten times washis friend, not his opponent." Therefore, it says, any candidate whodisagrees with three or more of their 10 points is not their friend andshould be denied party help.

The demand for purity on a range of conservative litmus-test issues,from support of a large troop surge in Afghanistanto anti-abortion and anti-immigration policies, is to be placed beforethe Republican National Committee in January at its annualwinter meeting in Hawaii. Other points includecommitment to smaller government and national debt, lower taxes,"market-based" health-care and energy reform, opposition to same-sexmarriage and gun control legislation.

"Republican faithfulness to its conservative principles and publicpolicies and Republican solidarity in opposition to Obama's socialistagenda," the resolution says, "is necessary to preserve the security ofour country, our economic and political freedoms and our way oflife."

The chief sponsor, Indiana National Committeeman James BoppJr., says his 10 co-sponsors on the committee are enough tobring the resolution to the floor at the Hawaiimeeting, but he expects to have more by then.

The effort obviously hopes to capitalize on the dissatisfaction inthe country over President Obama's domestic and foreign policies, seenin the vocal Tea Party protests over the summer and fanned byconservative commentators on cable television and elsewhere.

It's a direct prod at the party's national chairman, MichaelSteele, who has paid uneven lip service to the big-tent theoryof political success through expanding that narrowing base. The party'sfirst African-American chairman has proved to be no magnet even amongblack voters, nor other minorities.

The purists, often frustrated even under President George W.Bush, clearly hope that Obama's ambitious "change" agenda,highlighted by his fight for health care reform, will fuel theirargument that he is embarking on, as they put it, a government-runeconomy.

They wail that "socialized medicine" will take medical decisions outof the hands of doctors and place them in those ofWashington bureaucrats. In so doing, they ignorethe fact that Social Security, Medicare andMedicaid are all government-financed-and-managed programsthat have kept private medical practice thriving, as well as being alifeline to millions of elderly Americans.

They cite the Obama stimulus package to pull WallStreet and the nation's financial system from the brink oftotal collapse as no more than the first steps of a government takeoverof the banking and auto industries, though the effort clearly has beento keep them afloat so far.

In a sense, the resolution amounts to preaching to the choir,inasmuch as the GOP has become near-monolithic in its ownagenda, with deviation rare except on a few issues like abortion rights.And the likelihood seems slim that many Republican candidates will beoff the conservative reservation on three or more of the litmustests.

But as the party's public voice increasingly comes from truebelievers like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and ultraconservative radio and television commentatorsof the Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs and GlennBeck ilk, any big-tent aspirations by Steele look to be morefar-fetched than ever.

Unless an appealing party moderate somehow emerges as a seriouspresidential candidate between now and 2012 as a rallying point forlike-minded Republicans, circling the wagons with this sort of puritytest will only reinforce the GOP's minority status.

 

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