GOP/conservativism's political stance simply boils down to the Obama Litmus Test.

[Direckshun]

I keep going back to something I read and posted a few days ago.

It featured a poll reviewing the popularity of Obama's proposed gun reforms.

The poll was favorable to the President, and summarized thusly:

Overall, 53 percent of the public carries a favorable impression of Obama’s proposals while 41 percent are opposed.

While the poll represents a first reaction to the president’s plan, views on it are surprisingly hardened already. Almost seven in 10 give the plan “strongly” favorable (38 percent) or strongly unfavorable ratings (31 percent).

And, partisans have closed ranks. Fully 76 percent of Democrats rate Obama’s proposals favorably, while nearly as many Republicans say the opposite (72 percent). Independents tilt positively toward the newly announced restrictions: 51 percent favorable and 44 percent unfavorable.

By contrast, a separate Post-ABC poll conducted before Obama’s announcement found Republicans overwhelmingly supporting — or no worse than evenly divided — on four central Obama proposals. Nearly nine in 10 Republicans in that survey supported requiring background checks at gun shows, 65 percent supported adding armed guards in schools and 59 percent supported a ban on high-capacity clips. Republicans’ least-liked current proposal — banning assault weapons — was opposed by a modest 51 to 45 percent margin.

One potential reason for Republicans’ rejection of the new proposals is principle. Obama unveiled a broad slate of new gun restrictions, and the vast majority of Republicans oppose stricter gun control laws (in general), according to a December Post-ABC poll. While polls found Republicans are open to specific gun control measures, they may be less open to a comprehensive approach.

Another possibility? It’s Obama.

Republicans’ sharp negative reaction to Obama’s gun control proposals symbolizes a paradox of presidential leadership in a hyper-partisan era.

In poll-form, this is something that mirrors the Republican/conservative "shift away" from programs they once favored the split second Obama supported it. Republicans and conservatives abandon their once-held positions if they believe the President could get credit for it.

In the before-Obama poll above, Republicans believed that select gun control measures could make things safer. But they will cut off their nose to spite their face if it means opposing Obama. They will oppose measures that they believe make the world at little bit safer if they are proposed by Obama.

This isn't hyperpartisanship. It's mere competition.

It's not based on principle. It's a determination that what's best for America is what's best for the Republican Party.

Republicans/conservatives over the course of the past four years convinced themselves that Obama's the goddamn devil, and that everything he suggests must be poisonous. Even if it was something they believe in up to the moment Obama suggests we try it.

The Republican Party and conservativism as a whole has embraced the Obama Litmus Test: if Obama wants it, it must be opposed whether it's bad or not.

This isn't going to be a terribly popular post, but in a way I'm glad it's not. We've witnessed a wholesale unmooring of the DC forum over the past four years as the conservatives rally, not around what's best for the country, but around the notion of fighting the President for the sake of fighting the President.

[Prison Bitch]

Reminds me of when Dems hated the War. Then Obama was elected and the war protests came to an immediate, screeching halt.

[notorious]

The Democrats think it's all a bunch of steaming shit,too.