It is relatively easy to spot a RINO, because they do not hold to a traditional conservative Republican value system.

A RINO will NOT hold to one or more of the following core Republican positions:

• Belief in individual person’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, whether man, woman, elderly, child or yet unborn.
• Defending the Constitution and the Bill of Rights; especially the right to keep and bear arms, and the right to practice the religion of ones own choosing.
• Protecting the rights of the family against illegitimate government intrusions.
• Standing for a strong national defense, and fulfilling our commitment to our veterans.
• Keeping our commitments to our allies, and opposing totalitarian regimes.
• Holding the Federal government to its legitimate constitutional functions.
• Opposing judicial activism, and oppressive taxation by congress, states and local governments.
• Defending the right to commerce, and the individual’s right to work.
• Sound environmental stewardship, and opposition to protectionism.
• An affordable private healthcare system that is accessible to all.
• Supporting individual state public education systems by keeping them local.
• Supporting local law enforcement, and defending our borders.

Updated: As per the suggestion in the comments section, any Republican that has voted for any version of the Affordable Healthcare Act IS a RINO (Obama Care).  Any Republican that has voted for the Wall Street Bailouts IS a RINO.  These two transformative votes could not be a more clear indication of core beliefs.

• Opposing all bailouts of Wall Street Firms
• Opposing the mandate to buy insurance foisted on the American people
• Supports the repeal of the Healthcare Bill signed by President Obama

This is not an exclusive list, but does cover those general areas most usually forsaken by a RINO.

Erick Erickson’s commentary at RedState this morning, titled “Advancing. Ever Advancing” is spot on right and it’s a good start. He reminded us about the leadership provided by Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, and how we can send them more allies as senators by electing solid conservatives in the senate races in several states.

Erickson writes, “So we must advance. Two Republicans in the Senate caused this fight that their colleagues would have surrendered on more quickly but for them. Imagine a Senate filled with more. We have an opportunity to replace Mitch McConnell in Kentucky with a better conservative. We should do that. We have the opportunity to send a strong conservative from North Carolina and we should do that. Same in Colorado. Kansas looks to be in play. Chris McDaniel will declare his candidacy for the Senate in Mississippi. Conservatives will rally to him quickly. Tennessee could be in play too.”

While I’m not yet sold on Matt Bevin in Kentucky, who is challenging Mitch McConnell in the primary there next year, because it seems he might be more of a Christine O’Donnell than a Rand Paul or a Ted Cruz. While we do need to flush out the RINOs, it doesn’t advance us if we defeat an incumbent with an entirely incompetent candidate who will definitely turn the seat over to the Democrats in the general election as did Christine “I’m not a witch” O’Donnell did in Delaware in 2010. But RINOs like Lindsey Graham definitely must be defeated in primaries with good conservative candidates.

We need to do the same in the House races too, starting with supporting J.D. Winteregg, who is challenging John Boehner for Congress from Ohio. Every members of Congress who under-performs on the Madison Project index needs to be challenged in the primary in an effort to nominate a more conservative electable candidate. In order to win, Republicans must present the voters a mainstream conservative vision of prosperity, freedom, and American Exceptionalism rather than big government, political correctness, and America as a nation in decline. Republicans don’t win being moderate and positioning themselves as Democrat Lite.

Elections have consequences. We’ve elected too many moderate and liberal Republicans to seats that could and should be held by solid conservatives more like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee. Yesterday’s cave-in by the GOP leadership proves that again.