I have this little bit of news from one of the most backward counties of my backward state. This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t reminiscent of the current state of today’s Republican Party and so many otherwise intelligent conservatives.
“Pledges” for politicians began some time ago with that posterior orifice Grover Norquist – “I will never raise taxes, no matter what” – who I really should not blame for our stupidity in bestowing any legitimacy on him whatsoever. Populism and rigid ideology is the antithesis of the Founder’s concept of representative democracy in a republic of sovereign states.
What we’re supposed to be doing is sending smart folks to our legislatures so that they might spend their time understanding the complex problems of our modern world and then agree with others on how best to govern the community – radicals and obstructionists need not apply. But today’s leaders are expected by a growing number of people – who ought to know better – to promise what they will do about problems they have not yet encountered, let alone understood. This is and always has been lunacy.
As a case in point, consider this pledge created by the Laurens County Republican Party.
Tuesday, Mar. 06, 2012
Laurens County GOP OKs ‘purity’ pledge
By GINA SMITH – The State
It’s a 28-point pledge! Among other things, the candidate must promise these in order to get on the Republican ballot:
· Have never had premarital sex.
· Be faithful to their spouses.
· Not watch porn [We’ll let you know later what we’ve decided porn includes].
· Fight to protect gun rights.
· Oppose abortion, in any circumstances.
· Endorse the ideas of balanced state and federal budgets.
· Hold a high regard for U.S. sovereignty and be committed to peace through “strength in foreign policy”.
· Not favor any government action to allow civil unions by same-sex couples.
In my view they forgot to mention sleeping with your hands over the blankets – that should be in there.
This is the stuff of purity pledges folks and it is past time for real leaders to disavow this crud. For example, good on Matt Moore, executive director of the S.C. Republican Party, for quickly declaring, “The state party does not endorse this action, and no county party can legally keep a qualified candidate off the ballot.”
The good news about pledges should be that signers can be quickly identified as people to vote against.
A second small example of setting proper leadership expectations was George Will on Sunday when he was asked to comment on the Rush Limbaugh “slut” remarks. Will said that it was past time for political party leadership to police it fringe loonies. He complained that John Boehner referred to Limbaugh’s remarks as “inappropriate”. With utter distain, Will said, “Using your salad fork on your entrée is “inappropriate”.
On a different Sunday show, Mike Murphy said the media covers Rush Limbaugh like he’s the king of the Republican Party but the great myth about him is that he can’t deliver a pizza let alone a vote. Murphy said that not bashing Limbaugh was a major lost opportunity for Romney, Santorum and mainstream Republicans and they blew it. Back on the other show, George Will said that Republicans want to bomb Iran but they’re afraid of Rush Limbaugh.
Quite right, enough of this tolerance for scumbags in our national discourse and governance.
I really hate the guy, so I ask no forgiveness for piling on with the following – I got this from Kathleen Parker’s column Tuesday; I’ don’t listen to Limbaugh. The press missed the meat of Limbaugh’s remarks by focusing on the “slut” reference. The turd went on to say, “So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you femi-nazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives … we want something for it. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.”
A Party too dumb to make political hay with that has to be too dumb to govern. Let’s get a grip folks.
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