Jen Kuznicki

I was ecstatic when I found out Haley Barbour was not going to run for the Presidency. After reading all the news dug up by about Barbour and then-candidate for RNC chair Reince Priebus, I was kind of shocked, but I see they team up well to try to moderate those darned conservatives.

My first Republican Convention in Michigan was in 2009, and Haley Barbour was the main speaker. After listening to a real raw-meat speech by excellent political commentator Frank Beckmann, I heard Barbour say basically this: fiscal responsibility is the way of republicanism and as Republicans, we must support pro-abort candidates as well as the pro-life candidates. As I sat in the seat, surrounded by other Republican Michiganders, I wondered if I was the only one screaming inside.

As we filed out of the room after the speech, I overheard a group of Oakland County Republicans who were behind me say that, “we are from Oakland, we aren’t as conservative as people want us to be, but see, we want to win…�? That view is what does not win nationally, yet they believe it does because they listen to people like Barbour.

So when I read on the Fox News website, I realized the tactic here and the word purity and I thought I’d share what I think about the game being played.

Barbour said, “In politics, purity is the enemy of victory,�? and, “We can’t expect our [presidential] candidate to be pure. Winning is about unity, not purity.�?

Priebus “echoed Barbour’s call to unity. “The Republican Party is not in competition with the conservative movement,�? Priebus said with an almost plaintive tone. “The Republican Party is part of the conservative movement.�?

The purity factor for Barbour is anything having to do with the social issues, mainly abortion. What Barbour means is that the GOP is going to have to unify behind a fiscal conservative, regardless of social ideology. In Barbour’s eye, conservatism means being responsible for the checkbook, not the culture.

This angling is music to the ears of libertarians who have decided that they are the main view of the tea party across the nation. It is what the party’s operatives have been given the assignment of doing, reaching out to the tea party (I wasn’t invited, I guess) to find out what they want, and incorporate their view into the big tent. But scattered tea party leaders across the nation who do not claim to represent every tea party person would vehemently disagree. The Republican party is hearing only what they want to hear, serving their purpose, and expressing it through Barbour and Priebus, the roadshow of conservative bastardization.

I have a question. Let’s assume Barbour gets behind a Republican candidate who is pro-abortion. How far would that candidate go when I and other bloggers write about how pro-aborts stand idly by while millions of women and black children have been and are being aborted?

Barbour has the gall to say that social issues are a purity test? If this nation continues it’s culture of death it is doomed to fail anyway. Perhaps Barbour and Priebus are satisfied with a failing nation. Conservatives are not.

What is purity? Good on fiscal and social and defense? So we are to accept someone good on fiscal issues to get the libertarians on our side, and ditch the social issues to get the establishment on our side, and be kind of middle-of-the-road on the military so both the libertarians and the establishment don’t start a flame-war on facebook? Notice how Barbour’s purity test effectively squeezes out conservatives?

Chairman Priebus, Governor Barbour, I’d like to address you gentlemen directly. I, and millions of other Americans can see right through you fellas, and you are in for one hell of a fight.