RNC, The Party of Exclusion?

Found here is an article about the RNC's latest ill-advised scheme.

Essentially, what we have here is a proposal by ten RNC Committee members to force candidates running for public office that want financial support and the endorsement of the RNC to adhere to at least eight of ten requirements.  These requirements leave no room whatsoever for moderate candidates.  They are (taken directly from the article linked above):

(1) Smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill
(2) Market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;
(3) Market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;
(4) Workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check
(5) Legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;
(6) Victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;
(7) Containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat
(8) Retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;
(9) Protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and
(10) The right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership

This may seem like a laundry list of basic conservatism, but the principle behind it is quite flawed.  This leaves any potential candidate who disagrees with just three of these positions with three poor options:

(1) Maintain their integrity and either run as an independent or as a Republican without the financial support of their party.
(2) Sacrifice their honesty and lie on the application about their position in order to receive financing.  Only after being elected could they reveal their true intentions.
(3) Defect and join the Democratic Party, who for all of their flaws don't systematically exclude moderates.

As a tentative Republican and a moderate to boot, it pains me to see my party acting in such a poor, exclusionary way.  I have met Chairman Steele and he seems fairly level headed.  I can only hope that he sees through this nonsense and convinces his fellow Republicans of the foolishness of this move.  If not, this pushes the GOP one unfortunate step closer to a schism or, even more frightening, complete irrelevance.

This proposal cites, of all people, Republican hero Ronald Reagan as its inspiration and justification.  Somehow, I have trouble believing that Ronald Reagan, were he still alive today, would support this move.  For the sake of Ronald Reagan's good name, let's hope that the RNC backs away from this.