Taxes, gays, abortion targeted by state GOP
It's a shame the Republicans have concocted a platform so extreme they have to run from it rather than on it.
Thankfully, there are still a few constants in life: death, taxes, George Steinbrenner- and the Texas GOP remaining somewhere to the right of Joseph McCarthy. Yes, Virginia, Texas Republicans activists are the Social Conservatives who hijacked Texas' version of the Grand Old Party and transformed it into something only a Red-baiter could love. Not even George W. Bush embraced the Texas GOP platform during his time as Governor. He may be a Compassion-starved Conservative now, but as Governor he actually made an effort to work with politicians on both sides of the aisles. Of course, that was before his ideology was hijacked by the Neo-Conservatives who he surrounded himself with in the White House.
It is interesting that, even though the GOP platform is a horribly draconian document, it's not binding on candidates. Even Chairwoman Tina Benkiser says the platform "represents Texas ideals." Ideals? Sure, if you're trying to recreate "Pleasantville".
SAN ANTONIO -- Texas Republican delegates on Friday adopted an ultraconservative party platform that attacks a wide range of targets -- from taxes and homosexuality to abortion and the United Nations -- and gives a mixed review to Gov. Rick Perry's priorities.
The GOP activists also re-elected Houston attorney Tina Benkiser as state party chair. Challenger Gina Parker, an attorney-businesswoman from Waco, conceded after a majority of delegates in most of the 31 state senatorial district caucuses sided with Benkiser.
The platform, which represents the views of social and religious conservatives who have controlled the state party's leadership since 1994, isn't binding on Republican candidates or elected officeholders, who typically promote some planks and ignore others.
Ever since the Texas GOP was hijacked by far-Right religious nutjobs in 1994, the party has served as a winning label for many candidates, even if their political philosophy was nowhere close to the party's platform. For many Texas candidates, simply having the label "Republican" on their campaign literature was enough to push them over the top.
Let's face facts. For most Texans, having a rational political thought would be a rather painful as well as a somewhat new and thoroughly frightening experience. Since they've been brainwashed into thinking that Republicans sit at the right hand of God, they will simply vote Republican rather than risking the wrath of the Almighty. (After all, aren't Bill and Hillary Clinton two of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse?)
In the Great State of Texas, you could run a Budweiser Clydesdale for office, and as long as it had the word "Republican" on it's campaign commercials it could pretty much count on winning.
The Texas GOP is a scary lot. For most of these folks, the 1950s aren't just a memory, they're an ideal to aspire to. Back to the future, eh?
The Texas Republican Party has long been on record against hot-button social issues such as abortion, homosexuality and gay marriage. But the recent approval of gay marriages in Massachusetts prompted delegates to strengthen their language on that issue.
The new platform not only condemns homosexuality -- "the practice of sodomy tears at the fabric of society" -- it also advocates felony penalties for anyone issuing a marriage license or performing a marriage ceremony for a same-sex couple....
Delegates adopted a plank that strongly supports the war in Iraq. Another plank re-emphasizes long-standing conservative antipathy toward the United Nations by calling for the United States to rescind its membership in the U.N. and physically evict the U.N., which is headquartered in New York, from U.S. soil.
An anti-big-government attitude pervades the document with various planks calling for reduced spending, tax cuts and abolition of the Internal Revenue Service. The platform proposes replacing the federal income tax with a national retail sales tax.
The document also includes a plank calling for new restrictions on lawsuits brought over exposure to asbestos.
The platform also calls for repeal of the hate crimes law, repeal of the minimum wage, opposes the provision of reproductive health services, including condoms, in public schools and proposes the death penalty as a punishment option for rape.
I wonder if Texans who reflexively vote Republican have ANY idea of what it is that they are supporting? Or perhaps Texans really are more xenophobic, homophobic, and just plain more afraid of anything different than I had given them credit for?
