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.”
Repubs continue to shoot themselves in the foot.
What, you mean using a popular concept as a front to create landmark laws and rulings that can be expanded infinitely to destroy rights, like internet freedom?
Of course. What do you think elections are FOR?
What the Fluke????
Here we go again with the Constitution party agenda...../s
No one has the freedom to spam unsolicited email (sexual or otherwise).
However, the boat has sailed.
What is pornography?
How do you crack down on something most people can not define?
I honestly believe they are trying to lose this election...and it sure seems like Rush is thinking this, too.
Oh, yaaaaaaay! Cracking down on materials involving consenting adults and used by consenting adults in the home! I’m sure glad independents and libertarians don’t matter!
I have my doubts that this story is anything more than some attempt to paint the GOP as the morality police. I suspect I could be wrong, but I suspect this story is suspect.
I know ... it’s like, “How can we lose this election?”
“Let’s tell them we’re going to take away their porn!”
If we humble ourselves and seek God's face and change our wicked ways, then will He hear from heaven and forgive us and heal our land. 2 Chronicles 7:14
“This is part of the Republican War on Women.” - Larry Flynt
I guess unemployment, investing taxpayer money on fraudlent energy schemes, blocking oil investigation, stopping production of electrical generation, inflated prices of gasoline, the current recession, more prosed cuts to national defense, corruption in the Fast and Furious case, illegal immigration are all too easy.
No, let’s alienate people over an activity that has been shown to be protected by the 2nd ammendment.
Who’s side are these idiots on?
Someone is just throwing distraction chum in the water. Don’t bite!
If we humble ourselves and seek God's face and change our wicked ways, then will He hear from heaven and forgive us and heal our land. 2 Chronicles 7:14
I say it again, take a page from the 1992 Clinton Playbook; “IT’S THE DAMN ECONOMY STUPID”
Social issues right now are not uppermost on most peoples mind. We have 40 Million people plus out of work and are in for the most part a DEPRESSION.
Pound away on the economy, that is the win. If gas prices continue to go up, pound that also. That is the key to winning the election.
Leave it to the Idiot Damn Republicans in charge to worry about things that can be dealt with later.
And next week, we’ll have Debbie Does Charlotte, starring political porn stars, which raises the question: does adopting this plank mean that the GOP wants to shut down the DNC?
“Repubs continue to shoot themselves in the foot.”
Took the words out of my mouth. I guess they were worried they might actually win.
How is porn protected by the 2nd Amendment?
Other than by the fact some people will shoot you if you try to take their’s away. :)
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