GOP purity test

Who didn't see this coming?  Some deep-thinker in the Republican National Committee has come up with a list of ten sacrosanct policy positions, and has published them in an "RNC Resolution on Financial Support of Candidates."  Kind of a "Ten Commandments" for bewildered tea-baggers.  Here they are, in all their glory:

1. [They] support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;
   
   
2. [They] support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run health care;
   
   
3. [They] support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;
   
   
4. [They] support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;
   
   
5. [They] support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;
   
   
6. [They] support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;
   
   
7. [They] support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;
   
   
8. [They] support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;
   
   
9. [They] support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion;
   
   
10. [They] support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership;

Stirring, eh?  According to the resolution, in order for a Republican candidate to receive the financial support of the RNC, he or she must adhere to at least 8 of these 10 "principles." 

The supreme irony, of course, is that tea-bagger patron saint, Ronnie Reagan, whom they piously name in the resolution, would not even pass that criterion.  Reagan violated item #5 by supporting amnesty for undocumented workers; Reagan blew the deficit out of the water violating item #1; and, as Governor of California, Reagan signed into law the California Environmental Quality Act, violating item #3.

And, of course, this whole concept of "purity" has already cost the GOP a congressional seat in New York's 23rd district.

There is so much wrong with this list of inanities that, aside from its humorous value, it scarcely merits any attention at all. 

Besides, I think I could summarize the list with just six points:

1. The infallible "market" must be free to work its magic unencumbered by the concerns of workers;
   
   
2. Foreigners must be scrutinized and kept under suspicion;
   
   
3. Gays must not be allowed to feel they are tolerated;
   
   
4. The United States needs war and an armed populace to assuage feelings of inadequacy and helplessness;
   
   
5. Health care must be available only to those who can pay for it.
   
   
6. For God's sake, stop that black man from ruining our lives!
   

I wonder if the RNC needs an editor?