Weekly Opinion Editorial
SPUDDLE!
by Steve Fair
A political Party platform outlines the principles, goals, and policy positions on a variety of affairs. A platform resolution in the GOP must originate from the precinct level. It is then approved at county and state level before being considered at the national level. Platforms are hammered out and then approved at a quadrennial national nominating convention by the delegates.
The 2024 Republican platform was whittled down to 5,400 words- the 2016 platform was 35,000 words. The U.S. Constitution is 4,500 words long. The Sermon on the Mount 2,300 words long. Republicans clearly like verbiage. Republicans can view the 2024 platform at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/2024-republican-party-platform
President Trump said about the platform: “Ours is a forward-looking agenda with strong promises that we will accomplish very quickly when we win the White House and Republican Majorities in the House and Senate.” Three observations:
First, platforms are ignored by elected officials. Most politicos (at all levels) don’t bother to read their Party platform, much less feel bound to the principles in it. They see the platform as a document from a vocal minority, so disregarding it has no consequences. Until repercussions are suffered at the ballot box because of their lack of fidelity to the platform, they will continue to turn a blind eye. Far too many just use the Republican ‘brand’ to get elected and ignore the core values of the Party once elected. Until a majority of voters, at the ballot box, enforce adherence to the platform, it will be impotent.
Second, a platform is a product of those who draft it. Many who participate in the platform process are laser focused on one issue. Their sole goal is to get their issue included in the Party platform, reflecting their values. Fiscal conservatives concede social conservative issues to get their plank in the platform. Social conservatives do the same. That explains the garrulity of the document. The platform may or may not reflect the views of the majority of the members of a Party. It is more often a work of self-gratification and little more than spuddle (to work ineffectively and achieve nothing). Activists would do better educating the general public on the features, advantages and benefits of conservatism than drafting a manifesto no one reads.
Third, the 2024 GOP national platform de-emphasizes abortion. The abortion issue is not included as part of the platform’s prioritized 20 principles. The 2024 platform only mentions abortion once in the document and removes a call for a national ‘right-to-life’ amendment. That plank has been in the GOP platform for fifty years and is a major reason many GOP activists are involved in politics.
President Trump’s position on abortion is to push the issue down to the states, but are state rights more important than protecting life in the womb? Are Republicans only concerned about the babies in their individual state? Trump appointed Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe vs. Wade, which has saved millions of babies’ lives. But removing a pro-life plank that has been in the GOP platform for fifty years risks offending Christian voters who oppose abortion. The 2024 GOP platform is pro-life, unlike the Democratic platform. It just a more watered down than it was in 2016.
Brent Leatherwood, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, said this about the 2024 GOP platform: “Now is the time to advocate for a robust vision for life — at all levels of government — not retreat from it. A moment when the abortion industry has been knocked on its heels is no time to shrink from a full-throated commitment to protecting preborn lives.”
The 2024 platform was approved by the Platform committee by a vote of 84-18. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, a strong pro-life advocate and a member of the committee, issued a minority report condemning the removal of the right to life amendment plank. It is unclear if Perkins will bring it to the floor. Sometime Monday, all 2,429 GOP delegates from all 50 states and 6 U.S. territories will vote on the proposed 2024 platform.
Once approved, the 2024 platform- like those before it- will be filed away, to be ignored for another four years.
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