OPINION

A Party of Extremes: The Texas GOP Platform (Part II)

Written by Dave Nalle
Published July 08, 2008
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The nativist and isolationist elements are also troubling, but at least they're lightened by the inclusion of a selection of crazy ideas brought to us by the Paulistas. It's almost as if the Resolutions Committee looked at all the proposals that came in from civil libertarians and Paul supporters and decided to reject all the substantive and intelligent ones like ending the War on Drugs and instead let through mostly the silly ones like keeping us out of the nonexistent NAU and banning the equally fictional RFID.

The best thing I can say about the later portions of the platform is that at least there's less gay bashing and there are some positives, like the strong positions against excessive taxation and in favor of smaller government. Overall it continues the pattern, established in the first sections, of including everything but the kitchen sink, no matter how inappropriate (foreign poilicy statements on individual countries) or offensive (gay bashing) or extremist (advocating theocracy) it happens to be.

As a Republican considering running for office in 2010, I can't imagine being held to this platform, as a plank early on in the document suggests will be required of candidates. I'd take pleasure in actively running against most of the platform. The Republican Party in Texas and nationwide is better than this mishmash of foolishness, and I look forward to seeing a national platform which looks nothing at all like it.

Other Views

Many others have commented on how ridiculous the platform is, both from the left and the right. Here are some examples. One of many fun rants from the left. Some observations from the Texas Log Cabin Republicans. Some cogent points from Theocracy Watch.

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Dave Nalle has been a magazine editor, freelance writer, capitol hill staffer, game designer and taught college history for many years. He is Vice Chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus, working to promote liberty in the GOP. He designs fonts for a living and lives with his family just outside Austin. You can find his writings on politics and culture at Republic of Dave, on conspiracy theories at IdiotWars and on design and fonts at The Scriptorium.
Keep reading for information and comments on this article, and add some feedback of your own!

Comments

#1 — July 9, 2008 @ 00:20AM — Lumpy

Gee I'm glad I donlt live in Texas. Up here the republicans are at least halfway sane.

#2 — July 9, 2008 @ 11:26AM — Lee Richards

Too bad they don't have the guts to change their name to the Texas Christian-Republican Party, since that surely represents their values and goals.

#3 — July 9, 2008 @ 11:53AM — Dave Nalle [URL]

The weird thing is that from what I could tell at the state convention, these hardcore theocrats are a pretty small minority of the party. They're probablu less thanm 20% overall, but they've gotten themselves into positions of power and the indifferent majority have gotten used to voting along with them. I'd say that the pro-liberty people in the party now outnumber the religious right and may well push them out of the way in a few years. I'm hoping that documents like this are their last gasp at leaving a mark on the party before an alliance of libertarians and moderates crushes them once and for all.

Dave

#4 — July 11, 2008 @ 15:42PM — Arch Conservative

I don't know Dave...I've talked to a few texans that are pretty damn grateful for Rick Perry and the Texas GOP right about now.

They've told me that the economy in Texas is booming and I have read several reports that rank Texas as the number one state in the nation to do business.

Of course there are other things aside from the economy that you take issue with as you discussed in your article but it must be nice to live in a state where the economy is so good while many other places are suffering and the national economy is the focal point of the presidential election.

Where would you rather be raising a family of four right now Dave, in Texas under Perry and the GOP or Michigan under Granholm and the Dems who have not been content just to run the economy of there into the ground but to run it so deep into the ground that some economists are calling it the worst economy seen since the Great Depression and people are leaving the state by the thousands?

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