Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker writes about the GOP's so-called "purity test". This is significant because it's usually when party members start calling out their own kind that progress eventually happens. Such was the case of the Democratic Party, which led to the creation of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council in the 1980's, whose most prominent members at the time were Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton and Tennessee Senator Al Gore (and we know they weren't in those two jobs for long after the creation of the DLC.)
I don't often support most Republican positions but that doesn't mean I never would and never will. Remember, this is the party that started as a movement for the abolition of slavery. In any democracy, there need to be many political parties and in our democracy specifically, there need to be two vibrant ones.
Conservatives of today have forgotten, much like the liberals of the 1970's did, that the purpose of a political party is to get its members elected however possible. If you cast a wide net, you may catch some fish that stink but if you like fish, they'll all be delicious when you put them in the pot together and cook them.
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