OPINION:
The Republican Party platform may be the best one ever adopted. The party has long since learned that fiscal, social and sovereignty issues cannot be ignored or separated, but must be addressed as all part of a national campaign.
The media may have forgotten (or chosen to forget) that Ronald Reagan’s big victories, including his 49-state victory in 1984, were based on a three-legged stool of dealing directly with all three clusters of issues.
The 2012 platform adopted the identical pro-life language that has been in the platform since the late Rep. Henry Hyde inserted it in 1984 in Dallas. It affirms that “the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed.”
In sharp contrast to the anticipated Democratic Party platform, the Republican platform takes a strong stand in support of “marriage as the union of one man and one woman” and of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The platform specifically opposes any changes made by “an activist judiciary” or by a president who swore an oath to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
The platform speaks loud and clear against the Obama administration’s “war on religion,” which is trying “to compel faith-related institutions, as well as believing individuals, to contravene their deeply held religious, moral or ethical beliefs regarding health services, traditional marriage or abortion.” This war is an unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and on religiously affiliated institutions such as hospitals, schools and colleges, forcing them to accept the Obama administration’s rule that there is no higher power than the executive branch of the federal government. The penalty for violating the mandate uses the Supreme Court’s new approval of the federal government’s unlimited power to tax. Employers who reject the mandate will be hit with a tax of $2,000 per employee per year, a sure road to bankruptcy.
Of course, the platform calls for repealing Obamacare, identifying it as not really about health care. Obamacare is really about power, the expansion of government control and spending America into more debt.
The platform sections on immigration are examples of how closely social and fiscal issues and costs are intertwined. It is in favor of the rule of law, against any kind of amnesty, and supports requiring employers to use e-Verify to make sure their employees are legally in the United States. It also takes a strong stand for approving photo IDs before allowing someone to vote. Contrary to what the media tries to tell us, vote fraud is a real problem and we don’t want it to damage the upcoming presidential election.
The platform expresses outrage at the Obama administration’s recent decision to reduce or eliminate the work requirements for welfare. Work was the centerpiece of the Republican welfare reform in 1996 because most Americans believe “welfare should be a hand up, not a handout.”
The platform endorses “American military superiority” as the cornerstone of our strategy to deter aggression and protect national security. Superiority disappeared from the Republican platform in recent years, but it’s now more than ever necessary because of Mr. Obama’s foolish statements about wanting a nuclear-free world, which would leave America at the mercy of dictatorships that ignore all treaties and promises.
It rejects a long list of United Nations treaties, including the treaty on women’s rights, the treaty on the rights of the child, the treaty on persons with disabilities, the arms trade treaty and the Law of the Sea treaty. The platform also rejects Agenda 21, including its proposal for a global tax and various U.N. declarations on the environment.
Altogether, the 2012 Republican Platform is an excellent document written by grass-roots conservatives. It is a true reflection of American values.
Phyllis Schlafly is president of Eagle Forum and co-author of “No Higher Power: Obama’s War on Religious Freedom” (Regnery, 2012).
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