As I said earlier on Twitter, there are few things these days that can surprise me. I really shouldn't be surprised at the level of ignorance and naivety that is required to think that this could possibly be a good idea… yet they've done it again. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Republican Party: Jillian Rayfield, writing for Talking Points Memo:

Before you can join the Laurens County Republican Party in South Carolina and get on the primary ballot, they ask that you pledge that you’ve never ever had pre-marital sex — and that you will never ever look at porn again. Last Tuesday, the LCGOP unanimously adopted a resolution that would ask all candidates who want to get on the primary ballot to sign a pledge with 28 principles, because the party “does not want to associate with candidates who do not act and speak in a manner that is consistent with the SC Republican Party Platform.” Just…wow. How would one enforce this rule? What about the fact that a vast majority of people have had premarital sex? The date on that study is 2006, by the way. This isn't new. From the linked-to study: The study, which used statistics from the 1982, 1988, 1995 and 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, asked about 40,000 people ages 15-44 about their sexual behavior and traced the trends in premarital sex back to the 1950s. Of those interviewed in 2002, 95% reported they had had premarital sex; 93% said they did so by age 30. Among women born in the 1940s, nearly nine in 10 did. At the same time, people are waiting longer to marry; 2005 data show median age at first marriage is just over 25 for women and 27 for men. Wait - I've changed my mind. The GOP should put this rule into place on a national level. It would guarantee the Democrats would win every election because of the poor caliber of candidates the GOP would be forced to come up with due to the rule diluting their pool of candidates down so small.