The 16 Planks of the Republican Platform:

Each plank is linked to an explanation.

If I ever needed a list of reasons why I couldn’t be a republican or vote republican, I guess I am looking at it right now.  Don, you got my last R vote.  (insider joke)

Perhaps the plank I find most offensive is the plank on First Amendment, religious liberty.   It seems to open up the flood gates for me to have someone else’s religion shoved down my throat.   First Amendment freedom of speech is just down right hypocritical.  As I read the platform, I see freedom of speech being trampled at will–just not republican freedom of speech.

The human life plank didn’t set too well either since it advocates against established law and would take away my rights.   Free speech to advocate, right to off myself if I have a terminal disease is just a start.  Geez.

Who has a favorite or a least favorite?  I can’t wait to see what the democrats come up with.  I usually don’t like their platform too much but I expect to love it by contrast to this.  the moral of the story is to never give zealots a pen and paper.  This is not the Republican Party of yesterday, that’s for damn sure.

65 Thoughts to “The Republican Platform: eeewwwwwwww!”

  1. Here is the 2008 Democratic Platform.
    http://www.democrats.org/about/party_platform

    Too many words. Most of those words don’t make me want to barf, however.

    The Republicans win the streamlining the language race, however. even though their content sucks.

  2. SlowpokeRodriguez

    There is stuff in here I don’t much care about, and stuff I don’t completely agree with, but compared to the Democratic platform, it’s like reading Cicero, Dante, or Milton.

  3. SlowpokeRodriguez

    Artur Davis was right….the Democratic Party has been completely taken over by hard-left zealots.

  4. Starryflights

    Mr. Kobach proposed the plank calling for mandatory use by employers of a federal electronic system known as E-Verify to confirm the legal immigration status of new hires. “If you really want to create a job tomorrow, you can remove an illegal alien today,” Mr. Kobach said.

    http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/republican-immigration-platform-backs-self-deportation/?ref=global-home

    All that talk from repugs about how they support small businesses, deregulation, and free enterprise is nothing but a bunch of BS. They also would demand that employers adopt e-verify, a costly and cumbersome burden, under threat of harsh criminal penalties. What a bunch of hypocrites.

  5. Emma

    How is E-Verify costly?

  6. Lyssa

    I think e-verify also catches fraudulent SSN’s. Maybe it’s just human nature to have to present extremes to achieve moderate change.

  7. Morris Davis

    Isn’t a democracy a process where the people decide? If so, then isn’t the electoral college an anachronism? It’s also interesting that they want to protect the purity of the electoral process by disenfranchsing people and shielding secret cash. On the bright side, the demographic reflected in the platform is on the decline.

  8. @SlowpokeRodriguez
    The Dem platform sounds far more reasonable to me but….its harder to read.

  9. @Emma

    I have not heard that it is costly.

  10. Elena

    The dichotomoy of the two platforms, just in representation says it all. Republicans use too few words, demonstrating a lack of innovation and vision while Dems use way to many, demontrating their inablility to organize a coherent message!

    I do love how the republicans are so concerned about making sure the vote is legal while they at the same time having no compunction to disenfranchise thousands!

  11. Elena

    Emma,
    I found this article in the Houston Chronicle.

    http://www.chron.com/opinion/outlook/article/E-Verify-program-would-be-costly-to-small-2078257.php

    But small-business owners like me are rightly concerned about the disproportionate impact of a national expansion of E-Verify. According to a report by Bloomberg, if use of E-Verify were mandatory it would have cost businesses $2.6 billion in 2010. Small businesses would bear the bulk of those costs, paying millions of dollars to verify employees’ work eligibility, in this time when we’re trying to stretch every dollar we have to meet payroll, keep people employed and find ways to grow our businesses and create jobs.

    The government’s own figures suggest that the errors in a mandatory E-Verify system will cause close to 800,000 Americans to lose their jobs incorrectly and another 3.6 million to spend time correcting government mistakes in order to keep them. That’s bad not only for these workers, but also for their employers, who will be losing work hours while workers take time off to get their records fixed and, in the case of wrongful terminations, losing trained employees.

    Looking at broader impacts, mandatory E-Verify will drive economic activity underground, reducing federal tax revenues by $17 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

    1. OK, I was wrong. Mea Culpa.

  12. SlowpokeRodriguez

    Elena :
    The dichotomoy of the two platforms, just in representation says it all. Republicans use too few words, demonstrating a lack of innovation and vision while Dems use way to many, demontrating their inablility to organize a coherent message!
    I do love how the republicans are so concerned about making sure the vote is legal while they at the same time having no compunction to disenfranchise thousands!

    How does needed an ID disenfranchise people? Anybody can get one. Oh, you mean “keep thousands of illegals and dead people from voting”, right?

    1. Where is the evidence that thousands of “illegals” (sic) and dead people were voting?

      There is none.

  13. @Morris Davis
    Its a good thing that we’re not a democracy, then, isn’t it? The electoral college protects the smaller population areas from being disenfranchised.

    And how is the GOP supposedly disenfranchising people and hiding secret cash?

  14. SlowpokeRodriguez

    Moon-howler :
    Where is the evidence that thousands of “illegals” (sic) and dead people were voting?
    There is none.

    What evidence is there that “thousands” of people are disenfranchised? Anybody, and I mean ANYBODY can get an ID. You need it to buy Pseudofed for the love of God?

    1. I dont recall saying thousands of people were disenfranchised.

      You don’t need a govt ID to get psudofed.

  15. Moon not liking the GOP platform….

    This is my shocked face.

  16. Emma

    How do the thousands who would be disenfranchised manage to buy beer and cigarettes without an ID?

  17. SlowpokeRodriguez

    Morris Davis :
    On the bright side, the demographic reflected in the platform is on the decline.

    And when that demographic is gone, I bet this country will be a real latrine!

  18. Elena

    Wow Emma, talk about prejudice!

    To whom exactly are you referring to when you suggest all these disenfranchised people buy alchohol and cigarettes?

    http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20120710-texas-voter-id-law-burdens-minorities-hispanic-lawmakers-testify-in-federal-court.ece

    Starting with roughly 1.9 million eligible voters who apparently lack a required ID, Sager eliminated nearly a third because they are older than 65 and could easily vote by mail without a photo ID. That was one of many factors of Sager’s analysis, based on a comparison of state databases of voters and registries of driver’s licenses and concealed gun licenses, that federal lawyers questioned.

    To illustrate the travails many would-be voters would face under the new law, one of the minority groups opposing Texas in court put 18-year-old Victoria Rodriguez on the stand.

    The San Antonio teen testified that she can’t get a driver’s license because her parents can’t afford to pay extra for car insurance. She has a Texas voter card and a birth certificate. But she wouldn’t be able to vote under the new law, she said, because she doesn’t have documentation to prove where she lives — a requirement to obtain a photo ID created specifically for voters.

    Yet her high school photo ID was good enough to get through security for a flight to Baltimore and a train to Washington, and to check into a hotel and enter the federal courthouse near the U.S. Capitol. The state is scheduled to cross-examine her Wednesday.

  19. Elena

    http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2012/mar/02/aclu-florida/shark-attacks-are-more-common-voter-fraud-florida/

    On March 1, 2012, Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert moved in on Florida’s controversial new election law for a recurring segment, “People Who Are Destroying America.” The target: a Panhandle teacher named Dawn Quarles, who turned in 76 voter registration forms from her students beyond the state’s new 48-hour deadline. She could face a $1,000 fine.

    One of the people Colbert interviewed for his sarcastic report is Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. Florida officials claimed they needed to pass the law to prevent voter fraud, but these cases are actually pretty rare, he said.

    “There are probably a larger number of shark attacks in Florida than there are cases of voter fraud,” he said.

    I don’t want to be a spoiler, so if you want to know the result, click on the link!

    We couldn’t resist diving in: Are there more shark attacks than cases of voter fraud in Florida?

  20. @Cargosquid

    Actually there is strong indication in the letters of the founding fathers that they thought that the commoners were too stupid and untrustworthy to have a direct vote.

  21. SlowpokeRodriguez

    @Elena
    IF and only IF each of those florida cases involved ONLY ONE fraudulent vote, THEN you have a point with your article. Let’s compare stolen votes to shark attacks. Statistics are a funny thing….you can make them look however you like.

    1. That certainly is an unbiased report. NOT

  22. SlowpokeRodriguez

    @Elena
    Here, Elena…..show me how all of these are made up. I anxiously await your proof that none of these cases actually happened.

    http://www.rnla.org/votefraud.asp

  23. SlowpokeRodriguez

    Moon-howler :
    @Cargosquid
    Actually there is strong indication in the letters of the founding fathers that they thought that the commoners were too stupid and untrustworthy to have a direct vote.

    They were ALWAYS right, weren’t they?!

    1. Did I say I thought they were right or wrong? Nooooooooo

      Just that they didn’t trust the electorate.

  24. Bear

    I’ve been watching the RNC convention and the all seem intent on mistating the 700+ Billion dollars that “Obama” took from Medicare. Instead of taking it from overpaying insurance companies and reducing payments sent to hospitals which they have agreed to and applying it to bolstering Medicare, they insist he stole it for Obama-Care. I’m not too surprised by some political lying it’s just that a few of the undecided who don’t follow politics will vote for Romney because they will think Obama is doing something “crooked” I know that’s the idea but I would rather see a more fair election. You would think at my age I would not be so naive! Is this one of their “planks”?

  25. SlowpokeRodriguez

    Moon-howler :
    Did I say I thought they were right or wrong? Nooooooooo
    Just that they didn’t trust the electorate.

    No, you’re quite right. That’s one of those places that without nuance and inflection of voice, typed words don’t do the trick. I wasn’t being sarcastic, I was saying that I actually agree with the founding fathers who agreed that not everyone should be able to vote.

    1. @Cargo, funniest thing…I said the same thing to Elena about a month ago. I told her I didn’t want more people to vote, I wanted fewer…but it was one of those private conversations on a bad day….

      I am not sure how I feel about the electoral college. I would like to do away with the inner takes all. I would like for the votes to be proportioned out.

  26. Second Alamo

    “reducing payments sent to hospitals which they have agreed to” Hmmmmmmmm … yeah, Right! Like hospitals are overflowing with profits, Not. What choice did they have? For that matter, what choice did the nation have?

  27. Second Alamo

    The way the political parties present information and distort facts, I don’t see how any person regardless of intelligence could make an ‘educated’ decision. It’s more of a popularity contest, and always has been. Just watch some of the taped interviews with those who voted for Obama in the inner city areas, and all you get is a great understanding that policy had absolutely nothing to do with their vote. Those are the people that the founding fathers were concerned about for sure. Race based voting had nothing to do with party platforms.

    1. SA, you talk about race based voting. Do you think that is the only place where special interest voting takes place? How many votes do you think were cast in 2008 for the Republican ticket because 1. McCain wasn’t black? 2. Some men are horn dogs and thought Sarah Palin was a hottie? 3. McCain had a POW? McCain had been military? 4. How many votes do you think Romney will get because he is Mormon? 5. How many women voted for Hillary because she was a woman? For that matter, how many voted for Palin for the same reason?

      People often vote for people who are “just like them” or who have attributes in common with them. It could be religion, same college, same state, (politicians play on this all the time), gender, race, etc etc.

      I don’t doubt for one minute that Romney will get a huge Mormon bump. It doesn’t bother me at all. He is the first Mormon to run for president. Its been a long wait, that religion is 160+ years old.

  28. Starryflights

    SA – show me an example of a taped interview of an Obama voter you’re talking about. Don’t just make proclamations, show me the evidence – or be remembered as a liar and a coward.

  29. Second Alamo

    Starry, kiss my @ss! I’m tired of you attacking people, especially me. Debate, but don’t degrade! I remember watching a line of people being interviewed during the election being asked why they were voting for Obama, and the replies were purely comical. Now granted, this may have been on the internet and not public TV, but the interview took place for sure. I watch a lot of news video on the computer. These people only knew that they liked him, and that was about it, no political substance to their reasoning at all.

  30. Pat.Herve

    @Bear

    Funny because Ryan wants to keep the same cuts in place in his plan. Here, Obama is cutting funds from entitlements, and the GOP is all over it – trying to save the cuts to entitlements – how ironic. Sequestration cuts from Entitlements and DoD – but the GOP is trying to save the DoD cuts. I am not sure how you can always be on both sides of the equation.

    The Healthcare system in the US is like no other – it is not a free market – even if the GOP wants you to think it is. The Consumer of the Product does not pay for the Product. The Provider of Services has no idea of the cost of those services, and orders services that are not needed, some for CYA.

    What is the incentive for a Hospital to cut costs – there is none – as they do not share in the savings, but actually reduce their revenue stream. But, yes, lets go back to a broken model, and continue with the healthcare costs rising at greater than inflation. And, they still give away services and absorb the costs.

  31. Starryflights

    @Second Alamo
    You made a claim and all I asked was was evidence to support your claim, nothing more. If you can’t support your claim, don’t make it, unless you don’t mind looking like a liar or an idiot.

  32. blue

    @Starryflights

    Try googling “Stupid Obama Voters” to get a sense of it. Whether this is the rule or the exception or something in between, it is interesting to see the how you get a different list of hit titles when you google Stupid McCain Voters. In that case, and no I did not view every video, you get more hollywood people calling McCain stupid vice voters on the street. Maybe its the differnece in approach.

  33. SlowpokeRodriguez

    And the best.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm1KOBMg1Y8
    Have fun, Starry! (Is that you in the first video?)

  34. SlowpokeRodriguez

    Starryflights :
    @Second Alamo
    You made a claim and all I asked was was evidence to support your claim, nothing more. If you can’t support your claim, don’t make it, unless you don’t mind looking like a liar or an idiot.

    I’ll say this…….at least you don’t look like a liar!

  35. I don’t even know what the bruhaha is over. It just sounds like third grade to me. Please tell me these aren’t three stooges videos…please please please!!!!

  36. @Second Alamo

    I guess you used your ignore button on starry but not me…who asked you a legitimate question.

  37. @SlowpokeRodriguez

    Actually, I don’t think that video is all that amazing. Plenty of people vote every election who don’t know who controls congress or who the main players are.

    I feel certain I could line up at the polls and ask a similar type question and get equal number of Republicans saying the same thing–probably more because there aren’t as many democrats at my polling place.

    People like voting for a president. They aren’t voting for the high visibility people in congress.

  38. You can find videos of uninformed black people doing videos about Obama. I can go through vidoes and find plenty of white people who just sound dumber than all hell talking about one candidate or another. Why would I do that?

    Stupid acting comes in all shades.

  39. Elena

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/texas-voter-id-law-struck-down/2012/08/30/4a07e270-f2ad-11e1-adc6-87dfa8eff430_story.html?tid=ts_carousel&wp_login_redirect=0

    A federal court on Thursday blocked a controversial new voter ID law in Texas, ruling that the state failed to show that the law would not harm the voting rights of minorities.

    The three-judge panel in the historic case said that evidence also showed that costs of obtaining a voter ID would fall most heavily on poor African Americans and Hispanics in Texas.

  40. @Elena
    So…these judges are saying that ID should not be required for anything, then. Because any need for ID would be discriminatory.

    OR they could have used common sense and realized that EVERYTHING falls heaviest on the poor.

    Either ID is necessary or not. If ID is necessary to buy beer, get benefits, etc….. in fact, in some areas, ID is necessary to not be considered a vagrant, then ID should be necessary to vote.

    That said, make Gov’t ID free.

    1. I don’t mind ID being shown. I just don’t think it should be jump through hoop ID. I think there should be some sort of national consistancy.

  41. Elena

    Cargo,

    I don’t have an issue with presenting some form of ID, but having the “appropriate” ID should be so easily accessible that you don’t risk disenfranchisement.

    I still wonder, where is the overwhelming fraud that has brought about this sudden hysterisa?

  42. Emma

    Since voter fraud is virtually nonexistent, one can only assume the Democrats won’t cry foul if Romney wins the election by a thin margin, like they did with Bush/Gore.

    1. I doubt if any hanging chads had to do with registration issues.

  43. Since most voter fraud happens in favor of the party in power, those that would seek it out or prosecute tend not to…

    I remember vans driving around New Orleans filled with “voters” getting paid $10 per vote.

    Boxes of ballots are suddenly “found” when certain races are close…like Senator Franken’s. ACORN was convicted of improper voter activities. Democrats are ALWAYS against voter rolls being made more accurate. Why is that?

  44. SlowpokeRodriguez

    Elena :
    Cargo,
    I don’t have an issue with presenting some form of ID, but having the “appropriate” ID should be so easily accessible that you don’t risk disenfranchisement.
    I still wonder, where is the overwhelming fraud that has brought about this sudden hysterisa?

    Then you clearly cannot read. I provided you with a large list of cases…..did you find them difficult to read? I have an even larger list for you when you’ve finished the first one.

    1. [Stern look!!] Do not be disrespectful of the management. She will get you, swing you by your rodent tail before driving you into Haymarket to be with your friend Bernie.

      If it were I, I would just chop your head off with a shovel and call for Mr. Howler to carry you out to the old Can-er-oooooo for the Friday haul away.

  45. SlowpokeRodriguez

    And so, as with other things, we ignore the evidence and rely on the courts to legislate from the bench. OK.

    1. Nooooo! Not more Americans United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No more secret handshake politics!!!

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