The Sabbath is supposed to be a day of rest, so News & Observer columnist Rob Christensen chose to do no heavy lifting for the opus published today, titled “Purity may cost the GOP.” The theme:

The Republican Party likes to bill itself as the conservative voice
of North Carolina and that is true enough, although the Libertarian
Party might take exception.

But the state Republican Party has historically been far broader
than the Helmsian party, with strong ties to the more moderate GOP
brand of the mountains, the foothills, the board rooms and the suburbs.

Sometimes the Republican Party forgets that.

You’d think the Birchers had seized control of the state GOP. Or that some Ayn Rand-like faction had taken over and demanded a purge of the mushy, moderate heretics.

So what insidious coup, pray tell, has Christensen discovered? The state party’s decision to invite  New York Conservative Party congressional candidate Doug Hoffman to a fundraising banquet? (You think Republicans would get the party faithful out had they instead asked GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava, who dropped out of the race and endorsed her Democrat rival?)

Read the column. I challenge anyone to tell me what he’s talking about.

Had Christensen argued that the Dems were offering a centrist approach and the Republicans were ridiculing it, or threatening primary challengers to any GOP lawmaker who supported it, he might have a point. But the column doesn’t cite a single current public controversy. Indeed, it’s silent about any contemporary policy issues. He could have written a very similar column any time in the past 25 years, and it would have been just as unconvincing.

Look, independents are fleeing from the Democrats because they’re pushing a far-left agenda: health care, corporate bailouts, mountainous public debt, etc. Unemployment is above 10 percent nationally. And there’s no indication Democrats have a clue about the policies that could restore economic growth and job creation.

But there’s no guarantee the GOP will capitalize on this in 2010 or beyond. For now, public sentiment is not on the side of bigger government. And Christensen provides no evidence that the GOP is doing anything other than standing aside to let the Democratic Party self-destruct.