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For a party that loves to accuse Democrats and liberals of practicing &ldquo;cancel culture,&rdquo; and for a party that&rsquo;s allegedly passionate about individual rights and free speech, might we humbly suggest the venerable GOP has gone a bit bonkers.
				The most recent example is plans to potentially censure U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey thanks to his vote to convict Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial. This follows what starts to look like a herd mentality from other states taking similar action against other lawmakers who have similarly supported the impeachment proceedings on some level, in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
				The Associated Press&rsquo;s Marc Levy reported Tuesday that the state Republican party is planning a meeting to discuss the censure notion. Levy also reported a resolution to censure Toomey was discussed at a state party leadership committee meeting Feb. 6, before the impeachment vote even happened. And some county GOP groups have already voted to censure him.
				We have commended Toomey&rsquo;s reasoning on this issue in the past here. We urge Republicans &mdash; both party leaders and rank and file &mdash; to stop jerking knees and really talk to the man, or at least give some serious thought to his logic. You can disagree with his final decision, but he showed his work and it has merit independent of the outcome.
				Also take a look at his voting record and determine if his attitude toward Trump post-insurrection really does outweigh his dedication to the party&rsquo;s conservative principals.
				We&rsquo;re not defending Toomey&rsquo;s record; we&rsquo;re suggesting those suddenly demanding censure take a hard look at it.
				Toomey generally gets good, but not great, ratings among groups that try to measure a lawmaker&rsquo;s conservative bona fides. Frankly, we think it&rsquo;s a negative if a pol is deemed too ideologically pure, regardless which side of the political spectrum is making the judgment. We prefer lawmakers who hold to core standards but who realize that the best way to move the country forward is to reach across the aisle whenever possible.
				We are saying Toomey deserves to be judged by his full political measure, and not solely by his response to a deeply disturbing and very dangerous assault on the halls of democracy Jan. 6.
				Are you pro-life? Toomey has been on your side pretty regularly, including a vote last year to ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Like the Supreme Court judges appointed by Trump? Toomey supported all three. Hated the Obama administration&rsquo;s Iran nuclear deal? So did he.
				Toomey drew flack from gun rights activists for supporting some modest changes to the law that have widespread popular support, but he also has voted no on banning high capacity ammo magazines, voted yes on decreasing the gun waiting period, and voted to prohibit lawsuits against gun makers and sellers for gun misuse.
				GOP leadership certainly has the right to censure or not, and we suspect there isn&rsquo;t much short-term downside to censure. And for voters, Toomey&rsquo;s record is growing moot, thanks to a decision not to run for re-election in 2022. But for the Republican party in general and for Republican voters across the state, this issue may be a potential watershed moment.
				Is blind loyalty to Trump all that matters, or are the collective positions the party claims to embrace more important?
				 &mdash;Times Leader

Our View: Move to censure Toomey shows growing herd mentality