Party Discipline & Ideological Purity

Here's an example from today's paper of the treatment of a renegade moderate Virginia Republican in the new ideologically pure John Birch Partei: Potts Faces Wrath of Virginia GOP (from the washingtonpost.com)

"Party leaders would like to see Senate Republicans [...] remove Potts from his party's caucus and strip him of his committee assignments, including the chairmanship of the Senate's Education and Health Committee. From that perch, he has led a majority of the 15-member committee in blocking some conservative social legislation from reaching the Senate floor. "

I guess their "big tent" has been folded up until the next election, when they'll find some new lie or scare tactic to attract moderate voters.

Please note that the title of this blog doesn't have the word "Democrat" in it anywhere; I am not a member of any party. I have Liberal Republicans in my family who haven't had anyone to vote for in "their" party in years, if not decades. I can't help thinking that as the national (Texas-led) Republican party finds fewer and fewer adherents in the deep blue states, there will be a real opportunity for liberals to take over what remains of the elephant carcasses in these states and revivify them with the spirit of the Radical Republicans whose Reconstruction policies were once the scourge of the ex-slave states.
In blue states with open primaries, maybe the Greens could start picking up the elephant banner and bringing it back to its original principles by running their candidates as alternatives to those bearing the Bush-DeLay-Falwell Seal of Ideological Approval. Just a suggestion. I would offer to penetrate one of these Republican covens myself, but I have this uncontrollable urge to vomit when surrounded by pasty white men in navy blue suits with flag-adorned lapels.

À bientôt,
True Blue Liberal