Analysis by Kyle A. Lohmeier
This point in the election year is a lot like hitting the nine-hour mark of a double shift; by now you’re exhausted and irritated and a glance at the clock reveals there’s still seven hours of hell to slog through before you can go home. In this case, even though the primary has been sorted out we still have the conventions to get through.
The Republican Party is up first and will be holding their convention in Cleveland beginning a week from today. The Democrats will hold theirs in Philadelphia beginning July 25. As a sneak preview of the upcoming annoyance, a draft copy of the GOP Platform was shared with CNN, and their Tal Kopan had a write up on it posted in the wee hours of the morning.
The only good news is that the GOP is giving up a silly fight, but for the wrong reasons. Kopan highlighted the party’s decision to drop a proposed amendment redefining marriage as being solely between one man and one woman. Just like Obama, it appears the GOP can read and interpret poll data, on one subject at least.
“…opting instead to oppose the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage and calling on the matter to be decided by the states,” Kopan wrote.
Neither party accepts the individualist orthodoxy that individual rights are never subject to a public vote. Symptomatic of that, the GOP platform calls for the Supreme Court decision to be reversed, or for a constitutional amendment that returns marriage legislation powers to the states. In addition to being wrong on principle, continuing to beat the drum on this over-and-done-with matter appeals only to a base that is quickly aging out of existence while alienating younger people the party might be interested in having come inside the tent to replace them.
Further muddying the waters on the marriage and religion issues is the party’s misguided support for “religious freedom” laws, which allow private business owners the right to refuse service to gay couples. In other words, the GOP supports laws that protect rights all private business owners already have, or should, based not upon religious freedom but upon private property rights. If they’d just stated it the way I did, instead of calling them “religious freedom” laws, they might not look so silly to most Americans. In fact, I personally cannot think of a worse way of reintroducing hyper-sensitive Americans to the ancient and basic concept of private property rights than by calling them “religious freedom” rights.
Sadly, much of the rest of the GOP platform appears to be rooted in the past. It contains a provision for an “undivided Jerusalem” and doesn’t mention “Palestine” in its official support of a two-state solution to the unending Israeli/Palestinian crisis. Why a political party in the USA needs to have as part of its national platform stances on the internal policies of other sovereign nations is quite beyond me. Again, it’s an appeal to a rapidly aging base – evangelical Christians who want Israel kept nice for when Jesus comes back. Because, those are the sorts of considerations that ought go into running a country, apparently.
Naturally, with all of Trump’s tough, and insane, rhetoric on trade, the new draft platform contains a lot of new verbiage on the subject.
“We need better negotiated trade agreements that put America first,” reads a line from the draft platform, which Kopan pointed out sounds like Trump himself wrote that line into the plank.
“Republicans understand that you can succeed in a negotiation only if you are willing to walk away from it. A Republican president will insist on parity in trade and will stand willing to implement countervailing duties if other countries don’t cooperate. At the same time we look to broaden our trade agreements with countries that share our values and commitments to fairness, along with transparency in our commercial and business practices,” Kopan cited another Trump-esque passage from the draft platform.
Further showing how completely out of touch with both reality and the American mainstream the GOP is, their platform still contains draconian language on abortion rights, namely that there are none. That current plank in the platform takes a harder stance on the medical procedure than Trump himself does – as he is at least just human enough to allow for abortion in cases of rape, incest or the woman’s health. For some reason, the GOP can’t seem to figure out that the biggest favor it could do for itself would be to put as much distance between it and the Religious Reich as it can.
As Kopan pointed out, there’s still some time left to negotiate changes to the lengthy draft proposal before the platform committee sends a proposal to the convention floor. It is, however, unlikely there will be much improvement over what’s there already. And, to be sure, what’s there is the platform of a party that doesn’t appear willing, or perhaps capable, of adapting to change. Most younger Americans, even those as old as 40, have accepted the fact that the world changes rapidly, perhaps more so now than ever before. Leaving intact a party platform from four years ago is dangerous enough in today’s world, but the fact that the 2012 platform itself isn’t much changed over decades only makes staying mired in the past more counterproductive.
The world is changing rapidly around the old-guard GOP, and they seem unaware of it. Yes, political whores like Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are best able to “adapt” to new demands and positions among their constituents because the former never believed in anything other than her own desire for power to begin with, and the latter readily latches on to nice-sounding-but-impossible ideas. I’m not suggesting the party attempt to out-whore the DNC. What I am suggesting however, is that they put down the claw hammer and finishing nails, because their platform changes don’t require a few planks being surgically replaced. Instead, they need to avail themselves of a jerrycan full of 98 octane and a Zippo lighter. Burn the whole thing down and start over, focusing on individual liberty and ignoring the Religious Reich. Or, stand aside and let the Libertarian Party do just that.
Of course, all of this is assuming my darkest, most cynical fears are just that, cynical fears and not a reflection of reality.
Given that over the decades, union guys have come to blows with “scabs” over who gets to work in a hot, loud, crummy factory; wouldn’t the 535 Americans with the best-paying, most perk-laden and easiest job on Earth work just as hard to maintain that sweet deal as UAW guys do? Or, even harder? As such, I cannot shake the distinct possibility that this is all just a big WWE wrestling show – the acrimony between the parties is for the cameras. Just like the WWE’s “Faces” and “Heels” all collect a paycheck from the same guy; there are only about 100 top donors who fund most congressional campaigns on both sides of the aisle. I cannot help but suspect the “fighting” between the GOP and democrats is for entertainment purposes only and that the only thing they’re really fighting for is to keep this sweet little deal between themselves. Nothing could screw it up faster than idealistic interlopers, like the Libertarian Party, gaining a foothold and screwing up the dynamics of the game the two parties have hashed out between them.
Or, I could just be wrong on that. I hope I am. I suspect I’m not.
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