On Facebook last night, RPV chairman Pat Mullins issued a call to the party’s governing body to reconsider using the presidential primary loyalty oath the party adopted at its December meeting:
I’ve called a special meeting of the Republican Party of Virginia’s State Central Committee meeting for January 21st. The only agenda item will be to revisit the loyalty oath that Republicans must agree to before voting in the GOP Primary for President.
I’m asking the members of the State Central Committee to talk to their various constituencies about this before the vote.
The broader issue is …. we need Party registration in Virginia. Democrats have fought this for years for obvious reasons. We can’t have Democrat party loyalists flood our primaries to affect our nomination process. Party nominees must be chosen by their party.
However, in 2012, there are quite a lot of non-party-affiliated voters who will be helping us remove the current occupant of the White House — tea party members, conservative independents, new first-time voters, young people who can’t find work — people who want to participate this year to save their country. We must consider this in our deliberations.
He’s right. Republicans have railed against infiltrators and other malefactors infesting their party primaries. But requiring an unenforceable, obnoxious loyalty oath is not the answer to the problem.