Purity Tests = Epic Fail

Do you remember the laughter when wingnuts started talking about “purity tests”?  

How big of a failure was this?  Big enough that Faux News reported that even conservative pundits, much less some of the their politicians, thought it was a bad idea.  Let’s not forget about NY-23, where the wingnut “purists” lost the GOP an election that any Republican candidate should have won handily.  

The idea of “purity of Party” simply for the political Party’s sake is one big epic fail.

Now, I’m going to tell you why…

(crossposted at Daily Kos)

Purity tests fail because of two main reasons; Independent voters and moderates (of either Party), in that order.  The Independent voting block decides elections and there are too many moderates on both sides of the aisle for extremism to become mainstream.

The NY-23 election should have shown anyone pushing for “purity” that are total idiots.  In a Republican-dominated district, the Democratic candidate Bill Owens received 49% of the vote, the wingnut candidate 45%, and the moderate conservative 5%.  In the 2004 election, there were over 200,000 votes cast with the Republican receiving 65% of the vote, or over 130,000 votes.  This in a district of over 650,000 people and, in the 2009 special election, less than 140,000 people — TOTAL –voted, and, only 67,000 voted Republican.  In other words, HALF of the GOP voters in that district simply couldn’t bring themselves to go to the polls to vote for their new wingnut candidate put forth as a “purity” candidate.

The Democrats are now seeing the same thing.  Up to 40% of the Democratic base could sit out the 2010 elections as reported by Jed Lewison here at Daily Kos.  Though I disagree with his reasons for this surge in disaffected Democratic voters, the numbers themselves are staggering for ANY political Party.  Yet, here is someone asking for just that; a Democratic purity test.  And that is forgetting the people at Daily Kos that run to every diary bashing Obama, for whatever reason, just so they can comment on how much the diary sucks, regardless of facts.

The Bush administration pretty much destroyed the GOP.  That is a fact.  The lies, torture, give-a-away’s to the rich, destruction of the economy, horrendous unemployment, the wars — it all came home to roost with the American people that looked to the Democratic Party to bring our country back from the brink.  This repudiation of the majority of America is what tied the GOP into knots, brought out their wingnuts, and brought forth talk of purity tests — because any REAL Republican wouldn’t have done that to America, thus, in their minds, anything bad meant the person they backed wasn’t a REAL Republican.  Yeah, tortured logic, I know.

But, the Democrat’s are showing themselves little better in their blind support for the Obama administration.  And, saying “but, but, he’s better than the alternative” doesn’t change what OBAMA has, or has, not done.

Bush destroyed the economy.  But, it was Obama that put in Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers, neither of whom has worked to help anyone but Wall Street.  And, in case you missed it, Obama put up Ben Bernanke to continue running the Fed, the same job he failed the people at under President Bush.

Bush politicized the Department of Justice and installed hacks like John Yoo to write torture memo’s.  But, it was Obama that put in Eric Holder, who refuses to prosecute ANYONE from the Bush administration no matter how much evidence is available.

The GOP may be chock full of racist, homophobic, bigots.  But, Obama surely isn’t being the “fierce champion” of gay rights he campaigned on.

Yes, the GOP is playing obstructionist, successfully, with only 40 votes in the Senate.  But, without 60 votes, they were able to pass every piece of legislation they wanted, most of which was BAD legislation.  Yet, with 60 caucusing members in the Senate, the Democrats can’t even pass GOOD legislation the majority of the public want.

Are you people getting it yet?  Purity tests, blind support for any candidate, any policy, simply does… not… work.  And trying to force it upon people is EPIC FAILURE.  Half of the GOP supporters in one of THE most Republican districts couldn’t bring themselves to go to the polls to vote for a “purist” candidate.  Now, you could see half, or near it, of your own Party’s base not willing to go to the polls to vote for candidates because they simply couldn’t get the job done when given the chance.  And we get to start hearing about Democratic purity now?  What a joke!

Let’s compare these two statements:

And likewise, liberals who don’t get off their butts and get active for 2010 will have more blood on their hands as the country gets yanked back to the right under a Republican majority in Congress.

As we saw in Virginia and New Jersey, disillusioned, unmotivated Democrats don’t vote, paving the way to Republican victory. So even though the Senate may be the biggest part of the problem here, the consequences are likely to be felt by all Democrats. And that really makes it everybody’s problem.

Both basically tell us that if Democrat’s don’t get off their butts and get excited about voting, our country will return to the dark ages under Republican rule.  But, both miss the point of the “big picture” — BOTH Party’s have had unfettered rule.  The GOP failed and the Democrats are in the process of failing.  It has NOTHING to do with going to the polls and EVERYTHING to do with the fact our government, in and of itself, is failing the people.  ALL of the people unless you are in the rich elite class.  Purity tests for either Party won’t change that fact.

The Bush administration flipped off the GOP as a Party and destroyed it with their actions.  The GOP base that is still engaged has been taken over by idiot wingnut’s.  But, the Obama administration is flipping off its own base as well with his own actions and inaction.  Saying that Bush created the problems and Obama simply inherited them doesn’t excuse Obama for his own actions, decisions, nominations and choices for posts.

Jed Lewison did get it right when he said that it will take the Democratic politician’s actually governing in a way that helps people before there is any excitement about our government again.

In Uganda, they are thinking of making being homosexual a crime.  Not just a crime, but, a crime punishable by life in prison.  The United States is supposed to tell Uganda it is being unreasonable when we don’t let gays serve openly in our own military?  When gays are considered the next 3/5 of a person in the United States?  When we have a President that campaigned on gay rights, but, sent his own lawyers into court to defend the Defense of Marriage Act?

You may believe that standing by “your guy” is a “reality-based” concept grounded in political pragmatism, but, I stopped believing in pragmatism when a family member of mine came out as gay.  To me, family is thicker than any political pragmatism or calculation.

There is simply right and wrong… nothing more.  You either stand for what is right, or, you don’t.