The litmus tests matter and sometimes the contribution is in articulating a sound argument that gets a lot of attention.
That said, Rubio is dishonest and I will never vote for him. Neither will I vote for other candidates who won’t even so much as voice support for what is right.
The train has not left entirely so long as we are alive and able to fight. Some of those battles had no chance but were pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed until they turned things around. Things can in the exact same way be turned back around.
Actually, they do not matter, not in terms of accomplishing what we hope that they will. I hate to be a wet blanket, honestly, but let’s look at the facts.
Conservatives have had a litmus test regarding abortion basically since Roe Vs. Wade. The practical result of that litmus test is that America is the abortion capitol of the world.
Conservatives have had a litmus test on traditional marriage let’s say roughly since the mid 1990’s. The practical result of that litmus test is that America is now the gay marriage capitol of the world.
We are asking our politicians to state their position on matters that they do not care about, and will take no effective action on, and will lie to us in a second if they think it benefits them.
The only litmus test that matters at this point would be on state politicians and their position on an Article V convention with an amendment focused on curtailing the power and scope and finality of the SCOTUS. And I promise you, state politicians are going to lie to us about this as well.
Because if we do not do that, that court is going to continue to decide the direction of our society for us in an unanswerable fashion.
Continuing to hope that we are going to be able to elect enough virtuous politicians who will see to it that enough virtuous judges are appointed to reverse such things is pointless. It’s never going to happen. They will simply continue to use that hope against use as a method of disguising who they really are.
What we have to do is go over their heads and take apart the apparatus that they are using to rule us.
Whether we do that by legal means or otherwise remains to be seen, but anything other than that sort of action on our part will mean victory for them.
These people are perfectly willing to use the good nature of people against them in order to advance themselves.
That is what we are dealing with.
Playing the game by their rules means they win.