Free Republic

Just about everyone acknowledges, inside the Republican Party and out, that the GOP needs to do a much better job of bringing minorities into the party. But how? There’s a big problem with implementing this idea — one that is seldom discussed. The obstacles that prevent Republicans from bringing more minorities into the party are as cultural as they are political. Many blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Muslims, and even women instinctually vote Democrat, even when their views more closely align with the Republicans. It would be ambitious to imagine the GOP could get 50% of every one of those groups. But...

RNC chairman Michael Steele reiterated his opposition to same sex marriage this week, taking issue with former vice president Dick Cheney's support for it. "The vice president brings very personal perspective to this issue," Steele said on CNN's American Morning program on Tuesday -- a reference to the fact that Cheney has a gay daughter. "My personal view is that marriage is between a man and a woman," Steele said, adding that his stance is "very much in line with what the president [Barack Obama] has said." Cheney and Steele agree in one regard, however: Both say the issue of...

Say what you want about Meghan McCain, the girl knows how to grab a headline. Speaking Saturday to the Log Cabin Republicans, McCain pronounced her belief that the GOP is too far behind the times to be relevant to the American electorate. "I feel too many Republicans want to cling to past successes," the 23-year-old McCain said. "There are those who think we can win the White House and Congress back by being 'more' conservative. Worse, there are those who think we can win by changing nothing at all about what our party has become. They just want to wait...

Republican National Chairman Michael Steele says abortion is a choice, homosexuality is not In a recent interview, Republican National Chairman Michael Steele told GQ magazine that he supports abortion rights. "I think that's an individual choice (to have an abortion)," he said. Are you saying you think women have the right to choose abortion? Yeah. I mean, again, I think that’s an individual choice. You do? Yeah. Absolutely. Steele later issued a statement "clarifying” his comments regarding abortion saying he is “pro-life.” Steele also disputed the view that being homosexual is a lifestyle choice. "I don't think I've ever really...

Four years ago, in the week after the 2004 presidential election, we were working furiously to put the finishing touches on the book we co-authored, "It's My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America." Our central thesis was simple: The Republican Party had been taken hostage by "social fundamentalists," the people who base their votes on such social issues as abortion, gay rights and stem cell research. Unless the GOP freed itself from their grip, we argued, it would so alienate itself from the broad center of the American electorate that it...

During a segment on Tuesday’s Newsroom program, CNN anchor Rick Sanchez asked South Carolina Mark Sanford if the Republican needed to abandon its social conservative principles in order to be successful again: "Do you have to be anti-abortion, because that's a very important, big topic in the South..?" Sanchez later asked the Republican governor, as well as talk show host Neal Boortz, "Can you be a fiscal Republican and a social conservative Republican at the same time without making one side mad..?" Sanchez had both Sanford and Boortz on to discuss the upcoming Republican Governors’ Association meeting in Florida. The...

The 2008 Republican Platform, Values section, topic Preserving Traditional Marriage; with comments from readers. ... cont.

Cap and trade, drilling, no nukes, and tax credits for all At their conventions this past month, the Democrats and Republicans each laid out their differing solutions to our nation's energy and climate troubles. Energy and climate change are intertwined because burning fossil fuels that power the modern world produces carbon dioxide emissions that are warming the planet. In addition, higher oil prices have raised concerns about the nation's energy security. Combing through both platforms, it appears that the Republicans endorse a far more sweeping set of energy and climate change policies than do their Democratic counterparts. The GOP platform...

We oppose amnesty. The rule of law suffers if government policies encourage or reward illegal activity. The American people’s rejection of en masse legalizations is especially appropriate given the federal government’s past failures to enforce the law.

The clash includes issues of the environment, immigration, and gay rights As a senator, John McCain holds a reputation for diverging from many of his Republican colleagues on core party issues. Now, as the party’s presidential candidate, his record and policy views are putting him at odds with the overarching party platform adopted this week. On major issues like the environment, immigration, stem cell research and gay rights, the platform, which expresses the party’s philosophy, clashes with Mr. McCain’s longstanding positions or does not go as far as he has proposed in addressing subjects such as climate change. It is...

ST. PAUL, MINN. - Republican John McCain's primary campaign almost collapsed last year under the weight of opponents' attacks that he backed "amnesty" for illegal immigrants. As McCain prepares to accept his party's nomination for president tonight, past critics of the Arizona senator's position have rallied behind his candidacy. McCain, meanwhile, has backed away from signature immigration legislation and signed off on a party platform that makes a fence along the Mexican border a priority. The party's Twin Cities unity on immigration bridges, for now, an increasingly charged ideological rift for Republican candidates and campaigns. "We don't go around talking...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The 2008 Republican platform, in language that is hostile to illegal immigrants, says the makeup of Congress should be determined by counting only those legally residing in the United States in the next census. "The integrity of the 2010 census, proportioning congressional representation among the states, must be preserved," says the platform language, which is a reinterpretation of the Constitution that could affect how congressional seats are apportioned. "The census," it says, "should count every person legally abiding in the United States in an actual enumeration." The 14th Amendment of the Constitution, ratified in 1868, says representatives...

The GOP is making a dramatic change to its stance on climate change thanks to a “push” from presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, according to the 2008 Republican Platform Committee chairman. Platform Chair Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Calif., spoke to the group of conservative bloggers at the Republican National Convention on September 3 in St. Paul, Minn. He said McCain’s campaign was an instrumental part in pushing for a plank about climate change, to the chagrin of many conservatives.

The GOP is making a dramatic change to its stance on climate change thanks to a “push” from presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, according to the 2008 Republican Platform Committee chairman. Platform Chair Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Calif., spoke to the group of conservative bloggers at the Republican National Convention on September 3 in St. Paul, Minn. He said McCain’s campaign was an instrumental part in pushing for a plank about climate change, to the chagrin of many conservatives. “One thing you got to understand, when it comes to a platform, this is the difficulty that you have – you have...

To the Right of McCainPlatform politics. By Stephen Spruiell St. Paul — The Republican party has canceled most of Monday’s program due to Hurricane Gustav, but party delegates still plan to meet for a few hours to hold some pro forma votes. One of these will concern the adoption of a new party platform. The Republican Platform Committee hammered out the details during a series of meetings in Minneapolis last week. Conservatives should be pleased with the results. The new platform is distinctly different from the two adopted during the candidacies of George W. Bush, which were constructed to essentially...

St. Paul — The Republican party has canceled most of Monday’s program due to Hurricane Gustav, but party delegates still plan to meet for a few hours to hold some pro forma votes. One of these will concern the adoption of a new party platform. The Republican Platform Committee hammered out the details during a series of meetings in Minneapolis last week. Conservatives should be pleased with the results. snip... McCain now says that border security must come first... snip... The first draft of the 2008 platform leaned more towards McCain’s view. It attributed warming to human activity and called...

It’s a strange election year when one of the most important issues for voters is avoided by both presidential candidates. But that is exactly what has happened in 2008 with illegal immigration. Recently, some people have suggested that the Republican Party Platform should be similarly silent, or at least equivocal, on the issue. They are dead wrong. Think back to February 2008. Most of the contenders for the Republican presidential nomination were wrestling with one another to wear the mantle of “toughest on illegal immigration.” As Congressman Tom Tancredo correctly observed, the rest of the field “was trying to out-Tancredo...

Conservatives are thrilled with the platform just adopted in Minneapolis by the Republican National Convention Committee on Resolutions -- as the platform committee is formally known -- and which will be submitted for formal adoption to the full convention this week in St. Paul. The 2008 platform truly reflects the beliefs of the party and its activist base and is significantly more conservative than the one four years before. The working copy of the 2008 platform was drafted by party staff without the heavy-handedness often imposed by presidential nominees. In 2004, many activist conservatives were upset at the high-handed tactics...

I spoke with my mother, just before I left for Minneapolis to cover the Republican National Convention for American Thinker. My mother has been to a bunch of RNC conventions. She told me that they were all the same. "It was always the same old song," she said. Speaker after speaker promised to lower taxes, to cut back government red tape, to rein in federal spending. The crowds were almost hysterical, she told me. They were told exactly what they wanted to hear -- and they believed it. Mom said that she believed it too, at least for the first...

When I take the gavel at the Republican National Convention this week, Republicans will begin highlighting an agenda of freedom and security that will contrast sharply with what our Democratic counterparts displayed in Denver. Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin are uniquely positioned to be the standard-bearers of our reform agenda, and every day through Nov. 4, they and Republican candidates up and down the ballot will highlight our solutions on gas prices, the economy, security and health care — the issues that matter most to families, seniors and small businesses in Minnesota and across the country. In 2006,...