American Conservative Mag: Nothing Left to the Republican Party but the War

We Are the War Party

Congressional Republicans who doubt the Bush Doctrine face a primary purge.

I have noted for some time now that the Republican party no longer needs a platform. They can save time and paper at the convention by not discussing or voting on the platform for 2008. It is a sick charade for the party establishment to pretend that they still care about issues of economic liberty, of taxation, of federalism, of racial preferences, of regulation. None of that stuff matters to them any more and none of the base that is still sticking with the party gives a damn about any of it.

The only thing that matters is the war.

Period.

The sole qualification for being a Republican now is the desire to kill Iraqis. If want you to bathe yourself in the blood of Iraqi children, as Rudy Giuliani does, you're a good Republican. If you slobber at the prospect of torturing detainees in secret or extralegal prisons and camps, as Mitt Romney does, you're a good Republican. It doesn't matter that Mitt instituted compulsory universal health insurance in Massachusetts, and it doesn't matter what Rudy's record is on any other issue. Only the war matters.

That's also why they hate Ron Paul. His decades-long record on issues of spending, taxation, regulation, and federalism mean nothing. They're completely disregarded. They just don't matter any more, because Ron Paul committed the unpardonable sin: he stated openly that he doesn't want to kill Iraqis, and certainly doesn't want to kill Iranians. And on that basis, he is no longer a Republican - not to the party establishment, in any event.