Darrell Laurant: Loyalty oath? Bad idea

A loyalty oath? As a Virginia Republican, I’m outraged.

OK, I’m not really a Republican (nor, I hasten to add, am I a registered Democrat). But one Election Day about 15 years ago, when I volunteered to work the Campbell County polls for a first-person story, I learned I first had to declare myself a member of one party or the other.

“What should I do?” I asked Joe Stinnett, my managing editor.

“Flip a coin,” he told me.

I did, and it came up GOP. Ever since, I’ve been getting the party’s junk mail, which I suppose makes me a pseudo-Republican.

And that entitles me to point out this oath is a classic case of overreaching.

True, it has never made any sense to open a party primary to everyone. It invites voters of the other party to sabotage the results by voting en masse for the candidate they see as the least electable (probably, in this case, Ron Paul). Or write in Mickey Mouse, for the less serious interlopers.

OK. So issue official cards (perhaps with Ronald Reagan’s picture on them) to those proud to align themselves as Republicans. Perhaps the Democrats could do the same, minus Reagan. Then, in order to vote in a party’s primary, you’d have to show your ID.

The loyalty oath (which some Republican leaders are already talking about “revisiting” at a statewide meeting Jan. 21) goes beyond that, however. It requires anyone choosing to participate in the March Republican primary to promise to vote for the candidate the party ultimately chooses to run against Barack Obama in November.

This, to me, is taking party loyalty to an extreme. Given the wide range of philosophies and personalities among the GOP candidates, it’s hardly a case of one size fits all. Ron Paul is a gruff Libertarian. Rick Perry is George W. Bush lite. Newt Gingrich is, well, Newt Gingrich. Were they not united by the same political party, these are not people one would invite to the same dinner party.

And what if the candidate you really liked lost in the primaries but decided to run as an Independent?

Of course, it’s all a moot point, because how would anyone know who you voted for (or didn’t vote for), unless Obama wins the popular vote 132 million to zero? Not much chance of that happening, so those who sign a loyalty oath with fingers crossed have nothing to fear from the Oath Police.

My guess is the state Republicans will see this oath for what it is — an idea with the potential to do more harm to their cause than good. Some of the party faithful already are annoyed by the fact that only Paul and Mitt Romney made the Virginia ballot among the frontrunners, based on the inability of everyone else to come up with the required number of Republican signatures.

By the way, Newt Gingrich — a Virginia resident — already said he won’t vote for Ron Paul.