B4DH
Posted on 09/12/2007 5:57:51 PM PDT by Calpernia
New Right's on target as Republicans gather in Dallas Moderates lose custody of party's mainstream
As a prelude to the Republican National Convention, two factions within the GOP are engaged in a fight for the right to claim they represent the mainstream of America .
But when the cards are dealt to the New Right and self-dubbed moderates of the GOP, the New Right has control of the deck in 1984. And it has succeeded in drawing up the most conservative party platform of the last 20 years.
In four years, the deck will be reshuffled, and moderates of the party like Sens. Howard Baker of Tennessee and Bob Dole of Kansas, and even Vice President George Bush, may try to wrest "the heart and the soul of the party" from its most conservative branch, made up of people like Rep. Jack Kemp of New York, Rep. Duncan Hunter of Coronado, and Sens. Jesse Helms of North Carolina and Paul Laxalt of Nevada.
At this point, the most liberal of the so-called moderates -- people like Sen. Lowell Weicker of Connecticut -- have been invited none too politely to leave the party altogether.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell, in a news conference yesterday, compared Weicker to the Democrats, who "left the grassroots of this country and headed out into left field."
"Sen. Weicker would have been a lot more at home at the zoo in San Francisco " than at the Republican National Convention this year, Falwell said.
Ironically, Falwell may be right. Weicker and the Republican Mainstream Committee failed to get one concession from the platform committee on issues like the Equal Rights Amendment, the right to abortions under certain circumstances and the nuclear freeze issue.
Meanwhile, Falwell described the New Right as a "sleeping giant" which has awakened in the last four years, and will impact the November election heavily by registering voters and supporting candidates who support the views of the far right.
Ronald Reagan, Falwell said, is "the finest president who's been in the White House in my lifetime ... (who has) used the White House repeatedly as a bully pulpit for the moral and social issues (of the New Right)."
If the makeup of the convention, and the reception Falwell has received here, are representative of the nation, the Republican Party has taken the road leading right at a very fast clip.
Much of the literature to be found here deals in graphic terms with abortion, promotes the traditional, church-going Christian family and warns of the communist threat in countries around the world.
Dallas is a lonely place for the moderate Republican, and even high profile moderate groups admit they have made little impact on the platform of the party here, and aren't likely to do so when the full convention officially arrives Monday.
Those moderate groups, "People for the American Way " and the Republican Mainstream Committee, are sharing defeat this week.
Yesterday, Falwell called People for the American Way -- a non-profit educational group which advocates strong adherence to the First Amendment -- "a dying cause."
In response, former Alabama Congressman John Buchanan said, "We are dead in the same sense the Equal Rights Amendment is dead. We have lost a battle ... the likelihood is that we can prevail in the long run.'
Buchanan said that although he believes most people are more moderate than the Republicans of the New Right, they are attracted to the charisma of the president.
"The American people respond to a charismatic leader. They are indeed hungry for leadership, and Ronald Reagan appeals to the American people. So do many evangelical preachers," Buchanan said.
"I still believe most Americans are in the middle (on the social issues).
"In many ways, we are trying to make our voices heard at this convention. But we admittedly are in an adverse position. No one who is at all realistic could deny that."
Buchanan claims that his group fairly represents "mainstream" Americans, and mainstream Republicans, in spite of their low profile at this convention. At the same time, the Rev. Jerry Falwell and anti-ERA activist Phyllis Schlafly are maintaining extremely high profiles at the Republican Convention (Schlafly is a member of the Platform Committee) and they, too, claim to be the spokespeople for "mainstream America."
Both Falwell and Schlafly heaped praise on the Republican Platform, which espouses a philosophy more conservative than that of President Reagan. The platform concentrates on strong defense and military systems and opposes any rise in taxes in spite of Reagan's preference for an escape valve in case he has no choice but to raise taxes to counter the growing deficit.
But the platform also is heavily spiced with conservatism on the social issues:
o Local communities should have the choice of whether to permit vocal school prayer.
o There should be an end to sex discrimination, but the platform opposes the concept of equal pay for jobs of comparable worth.
o There should be a constitutional amendment banning abortion.
o Public funds should not be used for abortion for poor women, even in cases of rape and incest.
o Judges should be appointed who "respect family values and the sanctity of innocent human life."
o The GOP supports capital punishment.
o Pornography encourages violence and perversion against women and children and should be condemned.
o The government should strictly enforce the Pupil Rights Amendment, which prohibits questionnaires in schools on values and moral reasoning of children, role playing, secular humanism and values clarification.
o Tax credits should be permitted for parents sending their children to private schools.
The platform makes no statement about the Equal Rights Amendment.
One speaker to the Family Forum sponsored by Falwell's Moral Majority and the Free Congress Foundation said society is endangered by a corruption of traditional values, but there is room for optimism, especially this year.
"The traditional values movement is growing among those who probably don't even know what it's called," said Connaught Marshner, chairman of the National Pro-Family Coalition.
Marshner spoke against abortion, divorce, pre-marital sex, hedonism and what she called the "sodomized privileges movement," or homosexuality.
"We're the ones who called stop, enough. We're happy to admit that. I wouldn't say our kind of folks politicize the issues," she said.
"Our kind of folks are trying to reverse the tide ... that if left unchecked would destroy society. Traditional values or totalitarianism, that's what it boils down to."
Very interesting read!
“sodomized privileges movement”
This definitely gives ‘homosexual agenda’ a run for it’s money.
So to summarize, basically, nothing has changed in nearly a quarter century...
They were right about that. Moderates Dole and Thompson tried to toss the platform out in 1996. Thompson called it "useless" and abortion a "distracting issue".
Interesting archive to read on the GOP
>>>Moderates Dole and Thompson tried to toss the platform out in 1996. Thompson called it “useless” ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1877589/posts
Why ALL Conservatives need to support Duncan Hunter - Including you, Mr. Limbaugh
>>>>Fred argued in 1996 to do away with the GOP platform and considered abortion to be a “distracting issue”. <<<<
I forgot about that article. Rush needs to read it.
Thompson is right, abortion is a distracting issue.
It is distracting because it is not a political issue.
There is nothing that can be done about it in the political realm short of a Constitutional amendment, and that is in the people’s hands, not the politicians.
Talking about the greater principles of strict constructionist judges is far more relevant to the political arena, and it makes the strongest — and correct — case against Roe v. Wade. The abortion battle can only be won on legal grounds with legal reasoning — not on moral or religious grounds. Thompson has recognized that the anti-abortion movement is its own worst enemy with the way it has gone about it.
“In four years, the deck will be reshuffled, and moderates of the party like Sens. Howard Baker of Tennessee and Bob Dole of Kansas, and even Vice President George Bush, may try to wrest “the heart and the soul of the party” from its most conservative branch, made up of people like Rep. Jack Kemp of New York, Rep. Duncan Hunter of Coronado, and”
Deja vu all over again. Twenty years later and the ‘so-called’ first tier strongly resembles the Baker/Dole/Bush moderate wing of the party. Duncan Hunter, the real Reagan, then and now.
“Those moderate groups, “People for the American Way “ and the Republican Mainstream Committee, are sharing defeat this week. “
Ah yes, the wacky moderates at the People for the American Way!
So has every GOP platform since.
That is the heart of the platform, and the heart of the party.
Most of the current candidates, including and especially the Democrat Media-anointed so-called "frontrunners," have no clue about any of this, and are trying to take the party back to Jerry Ford's position. And I mean that exactly and explicitly. If someone doesn't believe me, they can go check. He said that he opposed abortion, wanted to overturn Roe, and then LET THE STATES DECIDE IF THEY WANTED THE UNALIENABLE RIGHT TO LIFE TO BE INOPERABLE in their particular state.
Same position as almost all of the current field, including Fred Thompson. There's no moral difference between them and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858.
Oh yeah.
Wasn’t too long after this article came out that the Christian Coaltion got sued and characters like Jim Nicholson started recruiting for the Log Cabin Republicans.
See posts in this thread starting and 27 and on.
http://209.157.64.201/focus/f-chat/1829933/posts
Vet Imprisoned for Seeking Benefits
Only someone who does not view abortion as the taking of innocent human life can buy that reasoning. First, we have won many victories lately. Bush overturned Clinton’s executive order allowing military abortions. He also stopped federal funds from going to UN groups that provide or refer women for abortions. He also signed the PBA ban, that congress (including Fred) pushed through. This atmosphere at the top has led to several states putting additional restrictions on it.
Duncan Hunter has been sponsoring bills since 1996 to define life as beginning at the moment of conception. He has sponsored it this year as well. This would negate R v. W. Hunter also wants a constitutional amendment, and Hunter would only place pro-life judges on the federal bench.
It is a fight that must be on all fronts, always.
If the GOP ever drops the ball on the abortion issue, I will cease to be a Republican. I am sure I am not alone on that promise, a third party will become inevitable.
It was good to read this dated article. It just goes to show that the battle for the Soul of America is unending.
It also served to reaffirm my choice for president, Duncan Hunter. I despise wishy washy politicians.
Yep.
It was good to read this dated article. It just goes to show that the battle for the Soul of America is unending.
Hence my screen name. ;-)
It also served to reaffirm my choice for president, Duncan Hunter. I despise wishy washy politicians.
I respect your choice. Congressman Hunter is a fine man and a great patriot.
Doctors, Pregnancy, Childbirth and Abortion during the Third Reich
Doctors, Pregnancy, Childbirth and Abortion during the Third Reich
Dr. Tessa Chelouche writes that "Abortion was used as a weapon of mass destruction in Eastern Europe," where "it has been estimated that tens of thousands of Polish and Russian women were compelled to abort not because of health reasons, but because of Nazi dogma." She goes on to quote Hitler's 1942 policy statement on the application of abortion to Slavic people, which is chillingly similar to modern Planned Parenthood propaganda:
"In view of the large families of the Slav native population, it could only suit us if girls and women there had as many abortions as possible. We are not interested in seeing the non-German population multiply…We must use every means to install in the population the idea that it is harmful to have several children, the expenses that they cause and the dangerous effect on woman's health… It will be necessary to open special institutions for abortions and doctors must be able to help out there in case there is any question of this being a breach of their professional ethics."
Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, expressed a similar objective about eliminating US colored people in a letter she wrote only months after Hitler's invasion of Poland: "We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members."
Today, Planned Parenthood and other international promoters of abortion, sterilization, and contraception, often claim that the availability of such services is a "health issue" and is necessary to fight poverty, echoing Hitler's slogans.
The article, "Doctors, Pregnancy, Childbirth and Abortion during the Third Reich," which appeared in the March issue of the Israel Medical Association Journal, shows that Hitler facilitated and promoted abortion and sterilization for "inferior genetic stock" while simultaneously practicing "positive eugenics" by prohibiting most abortions and sterilizations of "Aryan" German women. This practice reflected the same reasoning behind Margaret Sanger's famous slogan "more from the fit, less from the unfit".
In 1942 and 1943, the Nazis implemented mandatory abortion programs in some ghettos. "The punishment for giving birth and for delivering the infant was death for the whole family and for the Jewish doctor or midwife," writes Chelouche. In the concentration camps, however, "pregnant women were usually sent to their immediate deaths upon arrival just because they were pregnant."
Chelouche's also notes that the German sterilization program led easily to a program of mass murder of unwanted groups. "During the five and a half years preceding the outbreak of the Second World War, about 320,000 German persons with 'lives unworthy of life' were sterilized under the terms of the sterilization law," she writes.
"The victims of this sterilization program were asylum inmates, ethnic majorities, servants, prostitutes, unmarried mothers, unskilled workers and others. This sterilization campaign was a direct prelude to mass murder: the prohibition against bearing 'unworthy children' was expanded into the 'euthanasia' programs, beginning with the murder of some 5000 children, and then into the infamous T4 'euthanasia' program in which some 350,000 German adults were killed under the disguise of euthanasia."
Chelouche concludes with a profound question: "Who can confront the Holocaust and not be put on alert to evaluate scientific paradigms and the implications for public policy that flow from them, so that what we, as medical professionals and as human beings, want and identify as good, will be for the sake of respecting and saving human life? They too asked and answered the question: who shall live and who shall die? Then and now the subject at hand is killing, letting die, helping to die, and using the dead. Then and now the goal is to produce healthier human beings."
Rudy’s favorite group. Or was that NARAL?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
