Why is support for the Iraq War still an unofficial litmus test in the GOP?

Among the viable primary candidates only Ron Paul opposed the Iraq War from the beginning as an ill-conceived mistake. Though his position best represents the American public and arguably corresponds most closely to current Republican opinion, however, he is treated as a zany outlier.

For this reason, the Iraq War hasn't played much of a part in Republican Party debates. There is a chance it could play a much bigger role in the general election. When President Obama debates his Republican opponent on foreign policy, he'll likely be able to cite that candidate's support for a war that a healthy majority of general election voters regard as a mistake. If the nominee is Newt Gingrich, he'll further be able to cite the numerous mistaken positions taken as the war unfolded.

More importantly, the dearth of Iraq War opponents in the GOP field in anything approaching their proportions in the rank-and-file -- and the concerted decision of the GOP establishment, Fox News, and National Review to ignore or dismiss rather than engage Ron Paul and Gary Johnson -- is ensuring that a major disagreement about foreign policy on the right is papered over rather than being hashed out. Should Paul advance in the primaries, it will probably mean a major reckoning about foreign policy at an inconvenient time for Republicans. And if Paul loses it'll help explain why the GOP has a difficult time retaining the votes and energy of his supporters in the general election.

Remarking on the current issue of National Review, wherein the magazine goes all out to discredit Newt Gingrich, media critic Jay Rosen writes, "Reality-based Republicans decided not to have the big fight with the other kind of Republicans before this, so." Some weeks from now, it may also be true that, having decided to avoid an intra-right argument about Iraq for all these years, the conservative movement is going to have it at the height of the Republican primary.

That isn't ideal for the right. On the other hand, we have elections so that political elites are forced to ground their behavior in the views and preferences of the people. On foreign policy, Paul is the vehicle for advancing the views of a lot of Republicans who wouldn't get heard otherwise.

