I am Kyle's self-indulgence

I was intrigued to learn today about Republican congressman Bob Inglis, who recently lost a primary election largely because he refuses to pander to the Tea Party paranoia that has swept through his constituents. Among his crimes: telling people to "turn Glenn Beck off," criticizing Joe Wilson for yelling at the President during a State of the Union address, and refusing to call Barack Obama a Socialist.

Upon reading these things, my first reaction was relief at hearing about a Republican politician who actually seems decent, followed by depression at the thought that the bar for Republicans is so low that all someone has to do to stand out is not call the President a Socialist.

I don't want to make little of Inglis's integrity, though. There are some comments he made in the Mother Jones interview that really did impress me. Here he is talking about why he wouldn't call Obama a Socialist:

The word is designed to have emotional charge to it. Throughout my primary, there were people insisting that I use the word. They would ask me if he was a socialist, and I would always find some other word. I'd say, "President Obama wants a very large government that I don't think will work and that spends too much and it's inefficient and it compromises freedom and it's not the way we want to go." They would listen for the word, wait to see if I used the s-word, and when I didn't, you could see the disappointment.

I refused to use the word because I have this view that the Ninth Commandment must mean something. I remember one year Bill Clinton—the guy I was out to get [when serving on the House judiciary committee in the 1990s]—at the National Prayer Breakfast said something that was one of the most profound things I've ever heard from anybody at a gathering like that. He said, "The most violated commandment in Washington, DC"—everybody leaned in; do tell, Mr. President—"is, 'Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.'" I thought, "He's right. That is the most violated commandment in Washington." For me to go around saying that Barack Obama is a socialist is a violation of the Ninth Commandment. He is a liberal fellow. I'm conservative. We disagree...But I don't need to call him a socialist, and I hurt the country by doing so. The country has to come together to find a solution to these challenges or else we go over the cliff.

I have never wanted to be the type of person to vote solely on party lines, but after seeing the Republican Party as a bloc perpetuate misinformation and outright lies about Obama's health care and tax policies, and tolerate the worst elements of their own party, I thought I had finally reached a point at which I would never support any Republican ever, purely on principle. But after seeing Inglis's integrity, I think that maybe I could support him. Maybe.