In a proposal leaked to the national media last month, members of the Republican National Committee have come up with quite an amusing concept. They hope to create a rule that would prohibit the Republican Party from funding candidates who fail a conservative litmus test.

“Support for liberal candidates that undermine conservatives hurts the party,” Jim Bopp Jr., chairman of the National Republican Conservative Caucus and a RNC member from Indiana, said in an interview with Politico. “We supported [then-Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln] Chafee with millions of dollars, and he supports Obama and switches parties. We supported the Republican in the New York 23 race and she supports the Democrat. It is a consistent problem, and unless we do something about it, it is going to undermine our message of being clear conservatives.”

The test proposed by Bopp and a number of other GOP members includes the following principles: 1) Support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;

2) Support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run health care;

3) Support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;

4) Support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;

5) Support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;

6) Support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;

7) Support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;

8) Support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;

9) Support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing, denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and

10) Support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership.

If adopted, the rule would require Republican candidates to share eight of the 10 principles to be eligible for party endorsement.

The concept is a great idea. Requiring candidates to go through a sort-of “purity test” could quite possibly better unify the party. And, even more so, it could prevent embarrassments to the GOP like the one in which it’s still licking its wounds from. That incident happened in upstate New York during a special election when the NRC and NRCC gave large amounts of money to liberal Republican Dee Dee Scozzafava, who eventually endorsed the Democratic candidate Bill Owens. Owens won the historically Republican seat.

As expected, however, there are issues with this proposal. RNC members should be careful because a litmus test like this could scare off independents who the party is trying to draw.

Either way – unification or party shrinkage – sponsors of the resolution must submit it soon to RNC members for discussion of adoption, and only time will tell what will happen if this “purity test” takes effect.

Louisa Barber is a reporter for the Sidney Herald. She can be reached at 406-433-2403 | reporter@sidneyherald.com