Is there Litmus paper for Republicans?

On my recent post where I noted that I agreed with the Governor for his proposal on HPV vaccinations (and have a current running count of 109 comments from the classroom) I've taken some heat from some conservative members of the GOP, who think abstinence is the better option.

One commenter in particular noted that I was a "cafeteria Republican" and intimated that I might just be a liberal. Which, besides the "liberal" poke steaming me a bit, it brought up a good topic for discussion:
What is the litmus test for being a Republican, if there ever was one?
I cited in my spirited response the often repeated series of Republican principles...
I BELIEVE the strength of our nation lies with the individual and that each person's dignity, freedom and ability and responsibility must be honored.

I BELIEVE in equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, creed, sex, age or disability.

I BELIEVE free enterprise and encouraging individual initiative have brought this nation opportunity, economic growth and prosperity.

I BELIEVE government must practice fiscal responsibility and allow individuals to keep more of the money they earn.

I BELIEVE the proper role of government is to provide for the people only those critical functions that cannot be performed by individuals or private organizations and that the best government is that which governs least.

I BELIEVE the most effective, responsible and responsive government is government closest to the people.

I BELIEVE that Americans must retain the principles that have made us strong while developing new and innovative ideas to meet the challenges of changing times.

I BELIEVE American value and should preserve our national strength and pride while working to extend peace, freedom and human rights throughout the world.

FINALLY, I BELIEVE the Republican Party is the best vehicle for translating these ideals into positive and successful principles of government.
For the last 19 years that I've noticed, at Lincoln Day Dinners and other events (as attributed to Abraham Lincoln, or several dozen other people) this has been considered the unifying manifesto of the GOP. However, as their guiding Republican principles, others cite a more fluid document, the GOP platform (as documented on the SDGOP website) which is rewritten every two years.

So which one of those should be considered as having more precedence as the more definitive set of core values?

Or do we hang ideology out to dry, and simply stick with whatever consensus that can be reached with a majority of the people who denote "R" on their voting card?

Comments

Bob Newland said…
"I BELIEVE the strength of our nation lies with the individual and that each person's dignity, freedom and ability and responsibility must be honored."--PP

No, you don't. You think that sick, disabled and dying people should go to jail for using a medicine that works to alleviate their conditions, when that medicine has been declared arbitrarily of "no medical use" by a bunch of politicians (largely Republican).

"I BELIEVE the proper role of government is to provide for the people only those critical functions that cannot be performed by individuals or private organizations and that the best government is that which governs least." --PP

In the light of your beliefs about an herbal remedy that has demonstrated value, this statement is a laugh.

You are, simply, a hypocrite.
Anonymous said…
Bob:

You're too hard on young PP. He's a good guy. It took me some time to come around on MM as well. Plus, he's still trying to learn all his kids' names. Hint: PP, just start numbering them now.

I just have one question: Can you get litmus paper at Target?

Todd Epp
Senior Science Reporter
S.D. Watch
http://thunewatch.squarespace.com
Anonymous said…
I might consider what i call "pot pills" for medical purposes only but not the cig type.
What seems to be happening on the West coast is a shame. The only problem is how to manage growth of product and the illegal growth and usage.
Bob please remind us why you are so hyped on this anyway. I may be sorry for asking.....
By the way this is off topic.
Anonymous said…
As a Republican Party maybe we should not narrow in so hard on some of the social issues.

Bob what dignity is there in people smelling of pot? Where is the dignity of their actions when high on pot?
Pot can make people paranoid.
How in the world would it really be controled in growth and consumption. Could it be possible for a creation of a like type drug for those in need????
Before you say/type anything i am fully aware of some cancer patients using pot for relief, at least in the past and no it was not me! I know there are the pills but i have forgotten the medical name of the pills.
Anonymous said…
PP is not a hypocrite.

Bob you seem to be the "broken record" of a never ending topic.
Anonymous said…
If Republicans are required to oppose HPV vaccine, then it is quickly going to become a small party. My mother is one of the most conservative people I know - she campaigned for HB 1215, wants more traditional families, etc - and she can't believe that anyone would oppose vaccinations for ANY disease, no matter how it is spread.
Anonymous said…
Well, I believe that the "I Believe" is the core element of our party and it is within the core element we find the answers on the stance of issues.
Are we about to rehash the 06 state convention????
Anonymous said…
Information on the test trials of this vaccine would be intesting.
How many clinical trials were held and what was the outcome. Only time will tell of possible negative effects of usage. Did the FDA push this through to fast (I am asking here). Isn't it something like 7 years before a drug can be marketed?
Anonymous said…
Silly Todd Epp. Real Republicans don't shop at Target. They buy their litmus paper at WalMart, which doesn't pay its employees enough to buy their own HPV vaccine.
Anonymous said…
PP's manifesto is great. As is often the case, he makes sense. But the problem is that everyone says they believe in those things, Democrats and Republicans. It is our faith and the manner by which we respect HIS holy teachings that distinguish us from the party of Jane Fonda and Bill Clinton.

Our faith did not lose the House and Senate - scandals and the Iraq war did. While these happened on our watch, they should not cause us to lose faith and capitulate.

I know its hard to keep fighting after the setbacks of November, but we cannot question our faith. If we still can't stand up and fight for what we consider to be morally right, then we should just get it over with and rename the GOP. Instead of the Grand Old Party, we will be just another Group Of Pragmatists.
Anonymous said…
I've aligned myself with the GOP since I was 14. I agree with every "I believe" statement, but I often have problems with the platform. Does that make me liberal or worse yet, a RINO? I don't think so. One of my former TAR camp mates and now SD budget adviser suggested years ago that it should take a 3/4 vote to get an item on the platform. If the platform represents the party as a whole, it should have to pass the with a super majority.
Anonymous said…
I am a Republican. PP and I agree many issues but not all. Such dialag could make the Republican Party strong.
Under this President and current party leaders, there is a litmus test to be a Republican. First, you must be pro-life. Second, you must be a fundamentalist Christian. Third, you must be arrogant. Nothing else matters. The New Republican will stop at nothing to get its agenda moved forward. This Republican will withhold information. (Roger Hunt). This Republican will ignore any person or person in disagreement with his or her principals. (George Bush). This Republican will expect understanding for his or her past choices yet will have no compassion for those who make the similar choices. (Leslie Unruh). This Republican will lie to get his or her agenda passed (Yes on 6 saying there were exceptions).
This is not my Republican party.
Bob Newland said…
"Bob please remind us why you are so hyped on this anyway."

If you were to spend some time with an MS sufferer who experiences constant pain without cannabis, you wouldn't ask.

If you were to see the fear in a migraine suffer's eyes when she knows she's about to start a 12-hour siege of pain, and then see the attack averted by two puffs of cannabis, you wouldn't ask.

If you could see the difference between the after-treatment nausea of a cancer patient without cannabis and one who uses cannabis to quell the nausea, you wouldn't ask.

Would you like to see? (Most opposers don't want to.) Call me. 605-255-4032
Bob Newland said…
"You're too hard on young PP. He's a good guy."

A good guy who won't bother to inform himself on the miraculous benefits of a safe herbal remedy for a wide variety of medical condiditons.

That's not a "good guy".
Bob Newland said…
"Bob what dignity is there in people smelling of pot? Where is the dignity of their actions when high on pot?"

What dignity is there in people suffering needlessly?

"Pot can make people paranoid." Apparently, but first they have to be elected to office, or be uninformed (and not use pot).

"How in the world would it really be controled in growth and consumption."

Well, that's not happening now.
Bob Newland said…
"Our faith did not lose the House and Senate - scandals and the Iraq war did. While these happened on our watch, they should not cause us to lose faith and capitulate."

Perhaps they should cause you to stop supporting pigs like Bush, Thune, and Greenfield and start supporting people who actually practice Republicanism.
Bob Newland said…
"Pot can make people paranoid."

Now, why would that be? Could it be that the user might be worried that some dumb bastard like Gene Abdallah will burst through his door and shoot him?

Could be.
Anonymous said…
Bob, I would say you did not read some of the postings good enough and some of your answers are PLAIN LAME!
All you are doing is complaining and you have not offered solutions. I believe one poster talked about pot for cancer patients. Best re-read some of the posts.
Bob Newland said…
"All you are doing is complaining and you have not offered solutions."

I offered a solution to the voters in the last election. The Attorney General lied about the effect of the measure, as did others. Pat Powers opposed the measure, while giving no reason.

So, KMA, you moron.
Anonymous said…
PP gave a reason, Bob. His reason, if I remember correctly, was that marijuana should remain illegal because it is currently illegal.
Anonymous said…
Just a suggestion, but maybe Bob should smoke some pot. He needs to chill.
Bob Newland said…
"PP gave a reason, Bob. His reason, if I remember correctly, was that marijuana should remain illegal because it is currently illegal."

yes. you're right. and it fits perfectly with his mindless posting of a set of principles he says he holds, but does not hold in actuality.
Bob Newland said…
"Just a suggestion, but maybe Bob should smoke some pot. He needs to chill."

You go on ahead and chill. I'll continue to try to help some very sick people get safe legal access to a safe herbal remedy that works for them.
Anonymous said…
Bob, for one I am not a moron sir.

Like I stated before I have know cancer paitents who used pot and pill form for relief.

I also stated that I didn't mind the "pot pills" sorry like I said I do not recall the medical name for such. (I was not the patient)

I do know that "pot" is stronger now than it was years ago. That has been proven.

Like I said the problem is in growing the plant with control and the strength of dose!

Pot impairs people!

Also, If Gene A wants to bust through my door he can I have no problem, heck I will have it open for him as he enters, I like to greet my guest.
Anonymous said…
"Pot impairs people!"

So does Ritalin, but we don't have any problem pumping our kids full of that, do we?

So does Prozac, but that's still a-ok.

And so does alcohol, of course. Alcohol is dramatically more impairing than marijuaua, dramatically more dangerous, and results in dramatically more deaths.

Just about every single drug out there has side effects. Don't you watch the evening news? When they list all the ridiculous side effects the drugs have? Diarrhea, headaches, shortness of breath, drowsiness, etc. etc. etc...

The fact is, this is a decision that should be left to a doctor and his or her patient. When someone is suffering from a debilitating medical condition, they should be able to use whatever they want to relieve it, so long as their doctor is on board.

No true small-government, personal responsibility Republican can be opposed to this.
Bob Newland said…
"I do know that "pot" is stronger now than it was years ago. That has been proven."

No, it hasn't. And it isn't. It's different, because of the cultivation techniques that have been developed, but not "stronger".

Law enforcement has given the "stronger than your dad's pot" argument to the politicians, who gave it to the newspeople, and now it's general "knowledge". But there's no documentation to support the charge.

"the problem is in growing the plant with control and the strength of dose"

A problem to whom? The patients don't have a problem with it.
PP said…
Somehow, I knew I should have killed all the ditchweed comments as off topic in the beginning.
Anonymous said…
That's right, PP. Stifle the debate. Censor out the stuff you don't like. What a "journalist" you are.

You (and your blog) are to journalism what the National Enquirer is to literature.
johnnie w. said…
8:44 is right Powers. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading bob newland argue (albeit not "on topic") in favor of medical marijuana. If you read his first comment post, he's pointing out your "Republican" ideals are a bunch of baloney.

The opposition to medical marijuana (on this blog and elsewhere) flings random arguments all over the place hoping something will stick. How can you continue to believe the government's lies? GWB said so, right, Powers? C'mon.

You don't like it powers, because you disagree with Bob and me and anyone else who promotes "ditchweed" use for medical value. Your antics are pathetic sometime.
Anonymous said…
Okay PP, sorry for going off topic. I will stop my comments on pot and the problems with it be legal.
Anonymous said…
PP has a good blog, but the pot heads' comments aren't off topic in a post about ostensibly Republican principles and PP's failure to actually live by them.
PP said…
Anon 8:44, et. al.,

last I knew, it was MY website, so whether you like it or not, I do get to have the prerogative to decide what's on or off topic.

My point of the post was what, if anything, is a litmus test for being a Republican. Not to debate the merits of MM.

I've spoken about MM (and my opposition to it) in the past, and in that situation, then I would believe it to be entirely appropriate.

If you don't like it, or would prefer to talk about MM all the live-long day, you're probably welcome to do that on the MM website.
Anonymous said…
PP's litmus test is good except for the last point. I do not believe the Republican party holds those truths any more. I dropped my membership a year ago and have seen nothing to make me say I should come back.
Bob Newland said…
No matter what your "point" is, Pat, what shines through is your inconsistent, cherry-picking, support of what you say (and what I agree) are Republican ideals.
PP said…
or, 8:27, I can just hit my delete key...
Anonymous said…
Can't you hang with these pot heads, PP? Are you unable to respond to their attacks? Can't you defeat them with your words and your ideas, rather than having to delete their posts? It makes you look weak.
Bob Newland said…
The reason Powers resorts to the delete key is that there is no reason consistent with republican philosophy that people shouldn't have access to medicine that works.

He's far more interested in promoting his faux religious agenda.
PP said…
Lexrex, it's an often used and repeated manifesto among Republicans nationwide. The SDGOP used to print up cards and distribute it with it on them.

I've seen it attributed to anyone from Lincoln to Haley Barbour, but it was BS. I had a notation of the original author once - and do you think I could find it again?
PP said…
The reason I nuked the ad nauseum MM comments was because - once again - it was and remains off topic.

and again, if you would prefer to talk about MM all the live-long day, you're probably welcome to do that on the MM website.
Bob Newland said…
Just so the rest of you know, Pat deleted two of my comments that related the inconsistency of different parts of the "republican manifesto" he posted than I had explicated before.

It remains that Republican philosophy is inconsistent with not allowing patients and doctors to decide on a course of therapy, especially when that therapy has proven benefit in similar cases.

It also remains that Pat can't think of a good reason for the status quo, other than that he is inclined, like the Rapid City Journal editorial board, to think that things are pretty good just the way they are.
Anonymous said…
Republicans have never known what they stand for without constantly comparing notes with each other.

That's because there really is no zeitgeist to them.

Just a generic, fraternal and somewhat vague and subject-to-fashion disposition that changes over time.

Macho front, pussy actuality. Candy asses wrapped in flags and crucifixes. Fakes. 2D cardboard cutouts. Not a genuine gonad among 'em.
Anonymous said…
Pat, it is NOT off topic for people to demonstrate, in a post YOU wrote about what YOU allegedly "believe," that you really don't believe what you say, or at the very least that your actions do not match your words. There's nothing off topic about that. Why can't you see that?
Bob Newland said…
"Pat, it is NOT off topic for people to demonstrate, in a post YOU wrote about what YOU allegedly "believe," that you really don't believe what you say, or at the very least that your actions do not match your words. There's nothing off topic about that. Why can't you see that?"

None is so blind as him who will not see.

None are so pathetic as those who will not stand up for their own views.
Anonymous said…
You know this whole posting has gone to a different agenda.
You know there are Republicans here and across America who are female and don't have gonads thank you very much and do take offense to your saying our men don't have them.
I don't and dang glad I don't. But I do have the power of other forces.
Less Government is best, that is what we Republicans are about at least this one is. It takes the Government for ever to get things done. Then there are a hundred rules and regulations and it takes 500 trees to put it to paper.
Opps that sounded like a Dem crying in the forest (sorry). You know Republicans care about the environ also.
Republicans believe in helping with a "hand-up" not someone standing there all the time with their hands-out.
Please tell me how standing in line forever, for the so called freebes (tax payers $) helps anybody move foward.
I will stop my rant and rave at this point.

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