Earlier this week I wrote a column titled “Would Republicans Rather Fight than Win in 2010?” I wrote that 2010 should, by all accounts, be a year Republicans gain seats in our state house and in Congress. But a proposal before the Executive Committee of the North Carolina Republican Party might once again snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory for Republicans.

The measure would prohibit unaffiliated voters from choosing a Republican ballot when they vote in primary elections. Advocates for the proposal believe that unaffiliated voters ensure that more moderate candidates are chosen in the primaries, candidates that don’t embrace the litmus test issues of the ultra conservative wing of the GOP. Because more moderate candidates are chosen, they maintain, the base doesn’t show up to vote and Republicans don’t get elected.

My column points to facts that show they wrong. Republican registration numbers are constantly declining. Unaffiliated registrations are constantly increasing. People have a choice to register Republican but are choosing otherwise. Without unaffiliated voters the GOP cannot win. And the more right wing the candidates, the fewer unaffiliated votes they will receive.

My question was whether Republicans would rather fight or win elections?

The Charlotte Observer excerpted this column in their Friday paper. By 9 a.m. it had already received several comments. Most of them support the ultra-conservative stance of the GOP. One sounded off by saying, “Tom, there is a reason you are on a 15 watt radio station, you are a tool.” At a recent talk I gave one woman boldly stated that Barack Obama was “the evil one.”

These are two of many examples of what is wrong with political debate in this country today. There is, and always has been, plenty of room for people with differing opinions to discuss and debate issues. For whatever the reasons public policy debate has turned mean-spirited, angry, disrespectful and irrational.

Speaking as one unaffiliated moderate I can say categorically that when I hear people on either the ultra-liberal or ultra-conservative end of the pew spouting off mean-spirited opinions I decide to vote against whatever they advocate. Evidently there are others who agree. This is why they register unaffiliated.

To the gentleman’s point in Charlotte, I am not on a 15 watt radio station but a statewide network of 13 stations and 18 TV stations with more than 100,000 people per week who listen and watch. And we remain an independent production because we are not and refuse to be a tool for anyone.