Sen. Lindsey Graham censured by local Republican Party for bipartisan efforts - S. Carolina rift highlights debate over GOP

So, unfortunatly I was born and spent most of my life up until my mid teens in South Carolina. I am one of the fortunate few that managed to make it out of there. I can tell you first hand this is a backwards and ignorant State. What makes it worse is that most are proud of being backwards and ignorant.

Just read some of South Carolina's history and it kinda paints a picture. First to leave the union last to go back. Read about Congressman Preston Brooks, he beat another congressman almost to death with his cane for making a speech against slavery. Look at Strom Thurmonds record of being a pro segregationist. They kept electing him into his 80's-90s'.

When I lived there Strom Thurmond was still alive and the confederate flag still flew over the capital building. I know people are going to say "It's changed since then....they took the flag down." That's true they took it down and put it on a monument to the confederate soldiers in the back yard of the capital. The Klan still has a yearly march in downtown Columbia. I doubt it has changed very much, change comes slowly if at all down there.

It doesn't astonish me that they censured Graham. What's funny is that most people I know, don't even consider him that "moderate".

Graham get's censured....Sanford just gets debated about....and the you lie guy gets made a hero. How backwards can you get?

Wow, I guess he didn't pass the "Purity Test."

I wonder what other organizations in the world's past marginalized those who were "impure."

It starts with social marginalization. Then it continues with socioeconomic and political marginalization and ostracization. It continues with the enactment of social policies. It usually ends with gas chambers.

WOW I never knew that Lindsey Graham was a moderate, I have always thought of him as pretty hard core conservative!!

If they consider him a moderate then they really will never be a viable political national party again and will only be a southern regional fringe movement with few if any moderate or independent voters willing to cast their ballots for the GOP candidate, yeah!

The GOP censuring their elected officials for trying to work cooperatively on behalf of the American people. Nuff Said!

Soon to become an independent. The RNC is becoming too crazy-even for the likes of Lindsay Graham.

Indeed, Tony, 'nuff said. But I can't resist saying more.

The USA is a republic. The essence of a republic is representative government. We choose our representatives by popular vote, via democracy. They serve their electorate, at least in theory. They arrive at decisions via deliberation and discussion. Compromise is an inevitable and desirable part of that. That's not the case with the GOP, not any longer.

I remember when things were different. I remember when our system actually worked. It doesn't work any longer. The GOP will not work with the Democrats. The GOP will not listen to any point of view other than their own. The GOP insists that theirs is the only voice which counts. Now the GOP will not listen to its own, and will drum them out of the Party for impurity.

I remember Majority Leader Frist telling the Democrats that he needed only "a majority of the majority" to pass legislation. That meant as few as 30 votes could carry the day. The GOP shut the opposition out of debate entirely when they held majorities in both houses. That was something new and nasty, at least in my lifetime.

The roots of that nastiness trace to Reagan. The GOP used racism to gain voters in the South and began campaigns to appeal to emotion and tribalism as a way to keep their voters in line and on the rolls. Fear was their weapon of choice. Bill Frist, Tom Delay, Karl Rove, George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney "perfected" this strategy to the point where Americans turn away from it, and from them. They self-destructed, in less than a decade, taking their Party, our nation, and much of the world with them.

Unable to face that failure - those series of epic failures - the GOP again embraces the very strategy and ideology which led them to loss. The way to make a name for oneself in the GOP is to move further to the right, to become more extreme. There is always somebody willing to make that move. There are always people willing to follow. In a Party dedicated to self, selfishness, and self-righteousness, it becomes inevitable, it becomes karma, it becomes fate that the group, the Party itself, will die at the hands of those who claim it as their own. The fear they sought to reap upon the masses has turned inward, as the masses have turned away.

They care not for a republic. They cannot abide democracy. Their urge is to control without debate, without doubt, and without question. This is anti-American and un-American. Indeed, the GOP has declared that the very government which they seek to control is evil! They seek to destroy the government upon which they so depended for their free ride. They wish to eliminate the middle-man between the American citizen, the American taxpayer, and their corporate cronies.

They have become fascists, and given the opportunity, will rule ruthlessly. The move is further and further to the right. The rhetoric is more and more poisonous. The ideology is less and less supportable. We're better off they're out of power, and we're better off keeping them out of power, at least until they can demonstrate a respect for our political system, our republic, our democracy, and our government.

They're becoming dangerous. Some in their ranks think that's a good thing. What does that say, what does that tell you?

Nothing they do surprises me anymore...

Yet another example of the debate within the gop between moderates and ideologues.

Boot Lindsay Graham and all incumbents out of congress.

2010 it's time to take our country back!

Good Grief!

If they are pulling this litmus test on Lindsey Graham, there is no limit to the purge. This guy is hardly a bastion of Liberal thinking and action.

What the hell do you have to do to belong to the Republican party today?..........Eat dehydrated bits of Ronald Reagan for communion?............Get Dick Cheney to come to your kid's birthday party? ......Bath in tea?

You really think that is bad....heres one for you lefties that point out what I mean..........

"Joe Lieberman actually cares about what is best for this country, even though a Democrat, he is a good man."

Censured, of course. The Republican's don't have the congressional power to offer millions in bribes to keep members on the party line.

God forbid anyone in the GOP be willing to work as part of a unified congress on anything, to make the country run effectively!

The G.O.P. is not working against us directly, they are working against O'Bama directly, we are just caught in the cross fire. They figure the best way to get back in power is to stop and block every piece of legislation or bill they can, so O'bama will not show any success while he is in office. Then come election time it will be how he can't lead and did not do anything while he was in office, so vote for us.