Tornado Alley (PROG)

[PegnVA]

CULTURAL REVOLUTION IN THE GOP
If politics were a science, some latter-day Isaac Newton would confirm an iron law - that a party's pursuit of ideological purity inevitably leads to destruction. Witness the proposed resolution from a member of the Republican National Committee, James Bopp of Indiana, that the party deny funding to any Republican who fails to support more than two of 10 conservative litmus-test items.
Never mind that the revered ancestor of contemporary conservatism, Ronald Reagan, would have flunked the test. The logical conclusion to this quest for reactionary perfection came the other day from an august founder of the conservative movement, the direct-mail maestro Richard Viguerie. Conservatives "shouldn't waste time forcing symoblic litmus test votes on the Republican National Committee" Viguerie blogged. Instead they should concentrate on purging Republican leaders who have "consistently supported our national slide to socialism."
And Viguerie names some of the eminent socialists in Republican clothing: Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, House minority leader John Boehner, and former White House political adviser Karl Rove, all singled out for aiding that red-diaper baby George W. Bush in his bailout of the banks. Bopp may not go that far, but his dream of idealogical consistency, like Viguerie's is a self-aggrandizing act of censorship. The impulse to purge impure leaders enjoys a rich history that encompasses Robespierre's terror, Stalin's show trials, and Mao's Cultural Revolution. This experiement is bound to end badly.
-BOSTON GLOBE, 12/08/09