GOP purity test would have banished Bush, Reagan

By David Edwards and John Byrne
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 -- 10:58 am
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Ronald%20Reagan GOP purity test would have banished Bush, ReaganThe latest trend in the Republican Party is an effort to weed out moderates -- witness New York Republicans' successful effort to oust their own candidate in an upstate House race, in preference for an independent conservative.

But a new GOP "purity test" named for Ronald Reagan moves the line even farther to the right, and a liberal website has found that the test -- if used in the past -- would have screened out President Ronald Reagan and President George W. Bush as viable conservatives.

The test was conceived by conservative attorney Jim Bopp, Jr., who recently pushed a resolution to the Republican National Committee which proposed referring to the Democratic Party as the "Democrat Socialist Party." (The proposal was rejected.)

Bopp's litmus test, titled the "Resolution on Reagan's Unity Principle for Support of Candidates," includes the following guidelines:

(1) Smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama's "stimulus" bill

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

(3) Market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;

(4) Workers' right to secret ballot by opposing card check

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

(6) Victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;

(7) Containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat

(8) Retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;

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

(10) The right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership

Trouble is, the measure would likely have screened out President Ronald Reagan, under whose watch the US deficit ballooned. The federal deficit mushroomed from 2.7 percent of gross domestic product in 1980, to 6 percent in 1983.

Reagan also agreed to a $165 billion bailout of Social Security, in contradiction of conservative orthodoxy (though he did drastically reduce the top income tax brackets for Americans).

The Gipper also raised the gasoline tax in 1983.

George W. Bush would have had trouble too, Washington Monthly notes.

Bush, too, dramatically increased the size of the federal deficit, which was turning surpluses under his predecessor, President Bill Clinton. He also broke with conservatives on the issue of opposing blanket amnesty for undocumented immigrants.

Who else would fail the test?

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Republicans' 2008 presidential nominee, who voted against the Defense of Marriage Act in the Senate, which would have enshrined in federal law a prohibition against same sex marriage benefits. McCain, however, hasn't been in far-right conservatives' good graces for some time.

This video is from MSNBC's Countdown, broadcast Nov. 23, 2009.



Download video via RawReplay.com

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Story comments are below...

  • Dr. Matt
    Hitler and Saddam passed with flying colors
  • Wildcat
    "GOP Purity Test"? Bwahahahaha!

    Question #47: Have you ever kicked the foot of a neighbour in an adjacent toilet stall in an attempt to engage in gay sex with a stranger?

    Question #392: Have you ever "Hiked the Appalachian Trail"?

    Question #161: Is your name "Mark Foley"?

    Every "yes" answer is worth one point, and the higher the score, the higher your rank in the Republican Party! XD

    Wildcat
  • poopypants
    I think I missed the one where they pledge to work for the people that elected em'.

    'Market-based', what the fuck is that? Leave it up to the corporations to reform themselves? Yeah, that always seems to work out great, just ask Alan Greenspan.

    I'm scared.
  • tom11273
    Seriously, can the Republican Party be anymore full of it?

    I guess their new strategy is to conveniently have everyone forget what they did in practice and still market the ideals that they suckered people with into granting them power the last go around.

    They are like a cheating husband who had his way with any woman he that could charm the panties off of when he was married and now that he got kicked out of the house, he swears he won’t do it again. Sorry, but past performance is the most accurate predictor of future behavior. They financially raped, pillaged and screwed over 90% of the workers in this country. Now they are trying to sell themselves as friends to those very same people.

    They did not cut a dime in taxes. Every “tax cut” they enacted was paid for by tacking it on to the deficit which will have to be paid back with, you guessed it, more taxes.

    They are not “for” small government if you measure the size of government by spending. Bush 2.0 signed the first 2 trillion dollar budget and he signed the first 3 trillion dollar budget.

    Ronald Reagan started the whole, ‘pay for government by deficit spending’ course that we are on now. The only President in the last 29 years to have a balanced budget was a Democrat. It’s sadly Ironic that the first 10 trillion in debt was perfectly OK in the eyes of the Republican party, yet Obama’s 2 trillion on top of that, money spent to pay for the economic shambles that the Republicans left in their wake I might add, is now considered an economic crisis in the eyes of the Republicans.

    (Here is another FYI: That whole, “tax cuts and deficit spending will pay for its self in the form of more revenues later on” thing was a pack of lies. The average American worker got suckered into that corporate transfer of wealth, BIG TIME!)

    If they had any desire for market based health care reform, they would have done it sometime between 2001 and 2007. Their Medicare overhaul was proof positive that the only people they care about are the ones at the top of big business, not the average worker.

    They did nothing about energy reform. Seriously, what is different from what we had in 2001 and what we have right now? Pretty much nothing except higher energy prices. Republicans have never submitted a coherent energy policy for today and have utterly no plan for our future energy needs. If you look at what they did objectively, it seems their only plan was to ensure that more American money was put into the hands of OPEC nations. If that was indeed the case, their strategy was a roaring success.

    They don’t support workers rights at all which was made very clear when they revised the Fair Labor Standards Act. They made sure that fewer American workers could unionize and they made sure that fewer Americans are even eligible for overtime. (A Registered Nurse is now considered exempt which means that it is illegal for them to form new unions and they are not legally required to be paid overtime.) That section alone did not benefit workers, it benefited business. Our Republican friends working for us, the average worker!!!

    It’s funny how they talk about illegal immigrant amnesty. The Republican “God”, Ronald Reagan in 1986, signed into law the Simpson-Mazzoli act which, you guessed it, granted amnesty to illegal immigrants. What was the Republican solution to illegal immigration when they had control? They wanted to build a wall. And that is not close to being even half way done. But I’m not worried, that 1000+ mile fence at a cost of 2 million+/mile I am sure will work just fine.

    They have no idea how to win the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. If they did, both wars would have lasted less time than WWII. Now that they are on the outside looking in, all of a sudden they now know what to do? Ha! Here is a thought, neither war is in any way winnable. Let’s just get the hell out of both places.

    The containment of Iran and North Korea worked wonders over the past administration. Those sanctions and tough talking did great! They went from being threats to submitting to international pressure and being closer to joining a peaceful world society. Oh wait…

    Thank God gays won’t be able to get married. As a strait, heterosexual male, I can honestly say that me not being able to marry another man is my deepest concern. That is, it would be if I wanted to be pandered too with irrational fear mongering scare tactics. I am so glad that is among your top 10 priorities. Go Republicans!!!

    So now they support the lives of vulnerable people in the form of opposing health care rationing and public funding for abortions. Where was that altruistic support when the lives of vulnerable people were being ripped a financial new one by our Wall Street overlords? Oh right, it was their fault. It was the poor decisions by the average worker that ensured that they would work more for less, all in the name of productivity. It was the poor decisions by the average worker that saw their retirement savings decline when they put that money into Wall Street in the form of pensions and 401k’s. Those ignorant and irresponsible American workers.

    Here is a news flash. No one is going to take your guns. But keep up with the scare tactics. I hear the NRA is planning a new membership drive.

    The only thing the Republican Party cares about is power. They lost it and now they crave it back. It seems the only thing they can think of to gain it back is to recycle their already proven pack of lies. To the detriment of everyone, I hope at some point during the long future of viewing an effective one party rule from the sidelines, they can figure it out.

    Idiots.

    The thing is, the Republicans had a glorious chance. If they had done what they say they stand for, they would still be in power today and the end of that rein would be a long time off. They would have had no reason to pander to special interests and the Christian right because the majority of American workers would have been fine with their fiscal practices and supported them.


    For that matter, I would still be a Republican.
  • Dr. Matt
    Glenda has "The Plan" and now the GOPigs have a "purity test". At least they are no longer afraid to embrace their passion for fascism and Nazism.
  • It's amazing to me that the Republican party is moving even farther to the right. The national Republican party is truly frightening. They've been taken hostage by the tea baggers.
  • SPECOPS
    This is a good thing that the R's are doing.This will only make them less of a factor. This is a party of old,mad, white men. GO R'S

    Msgt.Moore/18D
  • tanj
    It sounds like you are describing Bill Clinton. He shrunk the size of the military, he balanced the budget and shrunk the debt.
    Jim Bopp Jr. is pro Clinton,who'd a thunk it!
  • dennycrane
    I am so glad RawStory brought this out. This is one of those "papers" you carry to shove down the throats of ass holes that have beck/hannity polyps leeching on to the sides.
  • vorpalraster
    Maybe Bopp should suggest that his party rename itself: The Theocratic Fascist Party.

    If the appellation is appropriate, use it, Mr Bopp.
  • thx1138a
    .
    NEW REPUBLICAN PURITY TEST INSISTS ON BLOND HAIRED, BLUE EYED ARYANS

    -- To Battle Rising U.S. Progressiveness, GOP Strategery Moves Farther To Right --

    -- Republican Party Confabs With Religious Right On How To Become More Out of Touch --
    .
  • winski
    What goes around comes around.... Now that these knuckle-draggers have come back to meet themselves, can they please leave the planet??

    Bye...Bye...
  • OldAtlantic
    Bushes were pro legal immigration and amnesty. So they should be excluded.
  • dennycrane
    Boy, you are a real "fart smeller". Or do I need to "speak" pig Latin to you. The beck/hannity nazis have kicked your "hitlers" from their own party. You should try on your "old" SS uniform and parade with them. Or does it clash with your "pee stained" sheets?
  • Savantster
    .
    the right-winger business types that higher illegals profess an adherence to policy that would include them in the purity approved list.

    go back to stroking that pony.. the one that only knows one trick.
    .
  • OldAtlantic
    Wright Island Model says immigration causes genetic replacement.
  • rickpetes
    Why is his bio posted on at the state department?

    You are in: Under Secretary for Political Affairs > Bureau of International Organization Affairs > U.S. National Commission for UNESCO > Members > Members and OrganizationsJames Bopp, Jr.

    James Bopp, Jr. is an attorney with the law firm of Bopp, Coleson, and Bostrom in Terre Haute, Indiana. He is engaged in the practice of law with emphasis on the biomedical issues of abortion, foregoing and withdrawing life-sustaining medical treatment and assisted suicide, on not-for-profit corporate and tax law, and on campaign finance and election law. He has served as a member of several committees including the President?s Committee on Mental Retardation, the Congressional Biomedical Ethics Advisory Committee and the National Institutes of Health, Human Fetal Tissue Transplantation Research Panel. Mr. Bopp received his B.A. from Indiana University and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Florida College of Law.

    And does "foregoing and withdrawing life-sustaining medical treatment and assisted suicide" mean he's for assisted suicide? Who is this clown?
  • rickpetes
    Here's a way to see his connections to orgs and people. If he's judged by the company he keeps, he's a creep.

    http://www.muckety.com/Query?SearchResult=8539&...
  • DEBBIE
    TWO THINGS WRONG WITH LIST ON HERE--------------------------NO WARS THAT WERE NOT DECLARED ACCORDING TO CONSTITUTION: ALSO,ISRAEL HAS LOTS OF NUKES.THEY ARE THE REAL THREAT TO THE WORLD,.
  • alverant
    1) if you shrink the size of government, how will we be protected from businesses who think that profit is justification for breaking our laws?
    2+3) Market based reform does not work.
    4) you forgot to add: and counted by Diebold
    5) you forgot to add: and no legal actions against businesses that hire illegals
    6) define "Victory"
    7) Details please
    8) Doesn't that contradict your first requirement?
    9) Will you also oppose health care rationing by for-profit insurance companies?
    10) Does the phrase "well regulated militia" have any meaning for you?
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