Posted on 08/27/2012 2:00:06 PM PDT by JerseyanExile
The Republican Party’s platform committee declared war on pornography ahead of this week’s Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla.
In a Monday morning press release, advocacy group Morality in Media revealed that “new language replaces previous platform wording, which only opposed child pornography.”
According to MIM, the new wording will read, “Current laws on all forms of pornography and obscenity need to be vigorously enforced.”
The party platform was drafted by a 112-member committee and will be unveiled early this week.
Existing obscenity laws “not only prohibit distribution of hardcore pornography on the Internet but also on hotel/motel TV, on cable/satellite TV, and in retail shops,” said MIM President Patrick Trueman.
“Distribution of obscene or hardcore pornography on the Internet is a violation of current federal law,” said Trueman, a former anti-porn prosecutor in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations.
Earlier this year, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum attracted raised eyebrows when he promised a “vigorous” crackdown against “the scourge of pornography.” Santorum posted the promise on his presidential campaign’s website.
Mitt Romney, who will officially be nominated as the Republican presidential candidate in Tampa this week, also promised the group a “vigorous” crackdown during the Republican primaries, Trueman told The Daily Caller in July.
Romney, however, has not discussed his position at length in public, and his campaign ignored requests for comment seeking elaboration on his position.
Curiously enough, in addition to promising a crackdown on porn, the party’s platform also calls for “Internet freedom,” TheDC reported last week.
The addition to the porn plank came from Tony Perkins, the Family Research Council president and a GOP delegate from Louisiana, according to MIM.
Other socially conservative positions within this year’s party platform include opposition to abortion, with no exceptions for rape or incest.
In March, The Atlantic chronicled the history of pornography in the GOP platform, noting that it was first mentioned in 1984.
In 1992, the party platform called for “allowing victims of pornography to seek damages from those who make or sell it” and declared, “The time has come for a national crusade against pornography.”
After Bill Clinton won the 1992 election, his administration reined in the number of porn prosecutions, and they remained uncommon throughout the George W. Bush administration.
By 2008, The Atlantic reported, the anti-porn zeal had mellowed and the party’s platform merely addressed child pornography. Under President Barack Obama, Trueman told TheDC in July, the DOJ has initiated no new obscenity prosecutions.
“We are most grateful to Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council who led the effort to get the tough new language into the platform,” said Trueman. “Without enforcement of federal obscenity laws, pornographers have had a green light to target our children and families.”
No one in government says this. Not even Henry Hyde said this. No one. The phrase "the mother's health" is an infinitely expandable rubric, and that is why pro-lifers do not like it much. I've never heard anyone in government say that a mother must die or even risk dying to save the baby's life. I don't where you got this from.
Traditional values used to include society enforcing it’s rules through shame and ridicule rather than always expecting the police to do it. So long as everybody involved in the creation and distribution of the porn is a consenting adult it’s really none of the government’s business, they should stay out of it.
The GOP needs to focus on the economy (period).
Most people don’t care about pornography (until you take it away from them).
Any liberal who has decided not to vote will come out if he feels his porno is threatened.
Fortunately, traditional values do not trump rights.
Having "traditional values" (or any set of values) means you teach your children well and hold them to a particular set of standards. It does not mean you get to dictate to those who do not share your values, nor to dictate which rights get to be enforced for whom, a mistake most politicians make.
Whether or not I like pornography, and I do not, it is not my place to tell other consenting adults what they can do in the privacy of their homes, nor what occupation they can hold. In that regard, I simply vote with my wallet, a pastime more adults need to learn.
Fight illiteracy - zot BtD. (sob!)
The lefties want to restrict economic liberty, our socons want to restrict personal liberty. But I like the idea of keeping them occupied with a shiny object so they leave the rest of us alone. So let the prudish busybodies have their little plank. Then after the convention we can all forget about it and go back to our free country.
Ah, the party’s own version if Islamists rear their ugly head.
We either stand for morality and the protection of our children or we are exactly like the scumbags who are wrecking our country in the pursuit of "progressivism".
Matthew 5:27-28
King James Version (KJV)
27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
********************
Just when you think conservatives will be glad the republicans MIGHT do something they might agree on, it’s still not good. I thought it was the democrats that were all about sex, sex, and more sex, now I see that isn’t so. It will be funny when some come face to face with Jesus and try to explain why they were upset about porn being taken away. I see civil law trumps Gods law for some.
it is the kind of thing leftists who write the “news” want to focus on
Oh, no!! What about clown porn /s
(I found out a few weeks ago that there really is such a thing as clown porn. I thought it was a joke, but it’s not. What a sad world we live in)
party platforms cover many many many topics
unreal. Trading one set of tyrants for another.
Talk about depressing.
unreal. Trading one set of tyrants for another.
Talk about depressing.
“Then after the convention we can all forget about it and go back to our free country.”
Amen!
I’ll give you my porn when you pry it from my hot, dead hands! /s
Seriously, why talk about this now?
We can defeat zero on the economy, and I predict we will.
But, if we don’t focus on that and only that, we may lose the election.
BTW porn is not illegal per se (at least that involving adults); obscenity is, however, not protected by the First Amendment.
Once again, channeling Akin, the GOP is stupid.
Yeah, porn and molesting children is so amusing. You should run for president.
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