Art, this is an exaggeration “Pretty much anybody who’s ever won an election, cast a vote or made a decision as an elected or appointed official is going to be a RINO to the “true conservatives.””

But it does touch squarely on something. Movement Conservatives are probably more anti “establishment Republican” than are Democrats. The Democrats are of course delighted with this and are busy making a Great Schism out of the tensions between Movement Conservatives and and they call Establishment Republicans.

This has always been true, by the way, especially when the Republicans were not as toady as they are today – when Buckley and his friends purged Taft Republicans from government offices and purged a whole swath of Americans from their self appointed Conservative Movement. The expulsion of the Birchers, of course, wasn’t done for the reasons used to justify it, and it wasn’t limited to the Birchers either.

The reasons were to prevent the strong anti-Communist domestic and foreign policies the Taft Republicans had every intention as governing with. Truman’s tack to the right happened for two reasons. One, the KGB was running around Europe shooting everyone of value, and their relatives were in America, they were Democrats and they became anti-Communists. But second, and equally important, Truman announced his intention of purging the anti-Communists publicly. They joined ranks and Truman had to cave. Significant was his aggressive confrontational containment foreign policy – this was what his opponents wanted and Truman had no choice but to give it to them.

But along comes Eisenhower who quietly purges them, and our foreign policy goes from confrontation and containment to peaceful coexistence and the beginnings of detente. And along comes Buckley and the domestic purges as Buckley creates a Conservative movement to be friendly with the left.

Those purged are now coming back into American Politics. They are the Bachmans, the Palins, the Pauls and the Tea Party. This is the divide in the country and what remains to be seen are the two pillars of contemporary politics – one, how far will the Liberals let the radicals push them, and two how strictly will Movement Conservatives enforce the doctrinal censorship of the Buckley purges.