Free Republic

Republicans are debating an election platform that differs in at least one striking way from the past _ it's purged of the dear-leader tributes that turned statements of party principles into an incessant hailing of the chief. In fact, a draft of the document going to the GOP platform committee Tuesday mentions 2008 presidential candidate John McCain and President Bush not at all. They'll be worked in later, in a section or two to be added. It's nothing personal, party officials hasten to say. Rather, they've put the platform on a crash diet. The 2004 platform ran over 40,000 words,...

There was a time, not all that long ago, when the conventions of the two major political parties were more than carefully orchestrated photo opportunities and pep rallies. The television networks have long since acceded to their audiences' wishes and ended the tradition of "gavel-to-gavel" coverage of these political jamborees. They are right to do so. Once the conventions stopped being news events and became endless partisan infomercials, there was no reason to treat them as being any different from any other garden-variety political rally. But that hasn't stopped the parties from continuing some of the time-honored traditions of the...

ABC News’ Karen Travers reports: The Republican National Committee today will unveil a web site, www.gopplatform2008.com, that will allow individuals to log on and share their suggestions and opinions on what should be included in the party’s platform. The platform will be ratified by the party’s delegates at its convention in Minneapolis in September. Starting Friday, an individual can log on to the site and upload their written comments or video comments. A team led by Platform Committee Executive Director Steven Duffield will sift through the online submissions up until the convention and party officials said they are open to...

ABC News’ Karen Travers reports: The Republican National Committee today will unveil a web site, www.gopplatform2008.com, that will allow individuals to log on and share their suggestions and opinions on what should be included in the party’s platform. The platform will be ratified by the party’s delegates at its convention in Minneapolis in September.

National Republican leaders unveiled a Web site Friday that they hope will encourage grass-roots participation in the shaping of the party's 2008 platform. Republican leaders say they think the site, www.gopplatform2008.com, will create an online community allowing anyone with access to a computer to offer ideas, to comment on others' ideas, and submit videos about their views. "I feel certain we'll get some great ideas," said Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., co-chairman of the Republican platform committee. "Will that be the majority? I have no way of gauging."

Conservative activists are preparing to do battle with allies of Sen. John McCain in advance of September's Republican National Convention, hoping to prevent his views on global warming, immigration, stem cell research and campaign finance from becoming enshrined in the party's official declaration of principles. .... McCain is "really out of step with the strong majority of his party," said Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which opposes McCain's positions on climate change. "He might get what he wants. And he might get a change. But I don't think it's going to...

Welcome to the most grassroots-driven platform development effort in the history of American politics! The Republican Party is seeking your input as we develop the policies and principles upon which we should stand for the next four years. On this website, you can share your thoughts, participate in polls, and communicate directly with the policymakers who will be shaping the party's agenda. All comments and feedback will be reviewed and taken into full consideration as we prepare for our convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul. We hope that this process will guarantee the greatest amount of public input into any platform in...

Conservative activists are preparing to do battle with allies of Sen. John McCain in advance of September's Republican National Convention, hoping to prevent his views on global warming, immigration, stem cell research and campaign finance from becoming enshrined in the party's official declaration of principles.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., faces enormous pressure from social conservatives to ignore his repeated commitment to change the GOP's platform on abortion. "If he were to change the party platform," to account for exceptions such as rape, incest or risk to the mother's life, "I think that would be political suicide," said Tony Perkins, the president of the conservative Family Research Council, to ABC News. "I think he would be aborting his own campaign because that is such a critical issue to so many Republican voters and the Republican brand is already in trouble." A senior Republican close to McCain...

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, 43, a prolife freshman Republican from California, will chair the platform committee for the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., The Washington Times has learned today. Steven J. Duffield, former aide to conservative Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, will be the committee's executive director. In his first year in Congress, Mr. McCarthy had a 100 percent prolife voting record, according to the National Right to Life committee. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has let it been known through associates that he will not work to "soften" — even behind the scenes — the...

SANTA ANNA PUEBLO, N.M.— Advisers to Sen. John McCain's presidential bid say he will not try to "soften" the Republican party's platform on abortion and same-sex marriage to appeal to more voters. McCain associates told The Washington Times that his operatives are not going to work behind the scenes to eliminate the party's calls for constitutional bans on abortion and homosexual marriage before the GOP convention in September. Previous Republican nominees, such as former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, have sought to alter the party's positions, which are honed and released in the platform immediately before the nominating convention. Mr. McCain,...

There was a time when the Republican Party was the ship that flew the banner of the Equal Rights Amendment. Mary Crisp went down with the Titanic, railing about women’s issues to the irate Reagan revolutionaries in the days leading up to the 1980 presidential convention. All revolutions have their heroines and heroes whose heresies lead them to be burned at the stake,” wrote Tanya Melich in “The Republican War Against Women.” “Mary Crisp was ours.” It was quite a finale for a woman who was basically a career volunteer, the prototypical ’50s suburban housewife who worked to put her...

(CNSNews.com) - Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, now running for the Republican presidential nomination, said on Sunday he does not support the pro-life plank that has been included in the Republican National Platform since the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Thompson told host Tim Russert that he favors overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that took the issue of abortion away from the states by declaring abortion a constitutional right. Thompson said he wants to keep abortion legal at the state level. "People ask me hypothetically, you know, OK, it goes back...

"Resolved, That we, the delegated representatives of the Republican electors of the United States, in convention assembled, in discharge of the duty we owe to our constituent and our country, unite in the following declarations: 1. That the history of the nation during the last four years has fully established the propriety and necessity of the organization and perpetuation of the republican party, and that the causes which called it into existence are permanent in their nature, and now more than ever before demand its peaceful and constitutional triumph. 2. That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Hundreds of prominent GOP activists met in Washington over the last four days for their annual summer meeting. With a presidential race and a battle over the party's platform coming up next year, several of the partisans said they would work overtime to keep the Republican Party's official pro-life stance in place. Delegates to the Republican convention in Minneapolis next year will reconsider the party's 93-page platform that opposes abortion and supports President Bush's policy against using tax dollars to fund embryonic stem cell research. The current GOP position on abortion advocates a Human Life Amendment...

The Brody File has come up with a few interesting quotes from Fred Thompson's past. First off, it appears Thompson wasn't a big fan of the GOP having any sort of platform back in 1996. In April of 1996, this is what The Memphis Commercial Appeal wrote: Thompson wants to change the way the 1996 Republican National Convention is conducted. For starters, he wants to abolish the party platform - just toss the archaic thing away. 'It's the most useless device I've ever heard of,' Thompson said during a recent visit to Memphis." Thompson also said this in a separate...

FReepers ALWAYS have what I'm looking for, so I'm sure someone here will in short order. My wife is trying to chip away at her nutjob "Christian" Democrat parents and their life-long addiction to the Democrat Party and she wants a complete set of the GOP and DNC party planks to show them, official ones from websites. We know most of it by heart but that's not the same as an actual referenced copy with source cited. If someone has both that are in basically the same structured layout that would be great. Thanks very much. :)

Republican Party Platform of 1856 This Convention of Delegates, assembled in pursuance of a call addressed to the people of the United States, without regard to past political differences or divisions, who are opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise; to the policy of the present Administration; to the extension of Slavery into Free Territory; in favor of the admission of Kansas as a Free State; of restoring the action of the Federal Government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson; and for the purpose of presenting candidates for the offices of President and Vice- President, do Resolved: That...

A platform robust with pro-life planks was passed yesterday by delegates during the opening session of the Republican National Convention being held this week at Madison Square Garden in New York. The 94-page document, "A Safer World, A More Hopeful Tomorrow," calls for constitutional amendments banning abortion and gay "marriage," a comprehensive ban on cloning, continued denial of federal money for research on new embryonic stem cell lines, abstinence education and other measures that bolster the sanctity of life and the traditional family. Story Continues Below The platform is a relief to some pro-lifers within the party who feared that...

Page 83 of 2004 Republican Party Platform: Protecting Marriage We strongly support President Bush’s call for a Constitutional amendment that fully protects marriage, and we believe that neither federal nor state judges nor bureaucrats should force states to recognize other living arrangements as equivalent to marriage.