PPI President Will Marshall explains the significance of Senator Snowe’s surprise retirement for Politico’s Arena:
“The decisions by Sen. Olympia Snowe and Rep. David Dreier to quit Congress are part of a broader trend: the ideological “purification” of the Republican Party at all levels. Moderates have become persona non grata in the GOP, with a whopping 71 percent of Republicans now identifying as either very conservative or conservative.
“This explains why the avowedly moderate Jon Huntsman never got traction in the GOP nominating race, and why the erstwhile moderate Mitt Romney is now pretending to be “severely” conservative. The absence of moderates’ restraining hand is evident in Virginia, where the GOP-controlled legislature has passed a bill forcing pregnant women to get ultrasound procedures before they can have an abortion.”
