GOP Purity Test: Fail

by: Foiled Goil

They're still using revisionist history to create their own version of reality.

A GOP purity test?

The "Resolution on Reagan’s Unity Principle for Support of Candidates" outlines 10 conservative principles the group of signees wants potential candidates to abide by. The principles include support for:

    [1] Smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill

    [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

"President Ronald Reagan believed, as a result, that someone who agreed with him 8 out of 10 times was his friend, not his opponent," the resolution states.

But how would Reagan have rated under these new principles?

Reagan Would Fail "Purity Test" Proposed for GOP

So here's a question: Applying the standard established in the resolution – review of the candidate's official record, public statements and answers to questions – would Ronald Reagan pass the purity test?

Let's see:

    [1] Deficit spending soared during Reagan's presidency. Strike one.

    [2] As governor of California, Reagan oversaw the development of Medi-Cal, the nation's largest Medicaid program – expanding it to cover long-term care and developed massive new managed care systems. Strike two.

    [3] As governor of California, Reagan Reagan established the Air Resources Board to battle California's smog problems and supported aggressive government intervention where the market had failed to protect the environment. As president, Reagan signed more wilderness protections laws – which restrict private-sector exploitation of natural resources – than any president in history. Strike three.

    [4] Reagan was a former union president who campaigned against the Taft-Hartley Act and other restrictions of the right of unions to organize. Strike four.

    [5] Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which granted amnesty to most undocumented workers who could prove they had been in the country continuously for the previous five years. After he finished his presidency, Reagan continues to speak out forcefully for immigration rights. Strike five.

    [6] After the 1983 bombing of a Marine barracks in Beirut, Reagan was urged by some to surge more troops into the region. Instead, he ordered the Marines to begin withdrawal from Lebanon. Strike six.

    [7] Reagan acknowledged that during his presidency the U.S. sold weapons to Iran. Strike seven.

    [8] Reagan was the first president to invite an openly gay couple to spend the night in the White House and he famously argued that gays and lesbians should not be discriminated against in a 1978 television advertising campaign. Strike eight.

    [9] Shortly after his inauguration as governor of California, Reagan signed into law the most liberal abortion statute of its day". Strike nine.

    [10] Here's Reagan, in 1991, on gun control: "I support the Brady Bill, and I urge the Congress to enact it without further delay." Strike ten.

Oops.

Countdown with Keith Olbermann:

Conservatives take loyalty oath [ 1:50 ]

Nov. 23: Republican National Committee members are being asked to adhere to, and distribute, a ten point purity checklist to make sure they’re right-wing enough. Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis discusses.

Full segment [ 5:28 ]