The Republican Kool-Aid Acid Test

A resolution is being circulated by RNC members which calls for candidates to support at least eight of the ten items listed below or face action by the RNC:

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

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

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

(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;

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

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

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

(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

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

Apparently, in Michael Steele land, it is impossible to be a genuine small-government conservative, or to be a libertarian who wants to keep the government out of all facets of his life. The fact that the very first item on this list contradicts the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth items is apparently beyond Steele's ken.

 We need less Ronald Reagan and more Robert Taft.