Platforms Offer a Stark Choice

Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

by Phyllis Schlafly: The Republican and Democratic parties adopted new platforms at their conventions last month, and they have fundamentally different plans for America’s future. The two major party platforms have not been this different from each other in our lifetimes.

A platform should be a statement of principles that can last for many years, not a partisan political attack against a particular candidate. The Republican Party platform has only one reference to Hillary Clinton and barely mentions Republican candidates of the past or present, while the Democratic Party platform rants against Donald Trump 32 times.

The Democratic Party platform wants federal taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions, and for the first time calls for repealing the 40-year-old Hyde Amendment which limits federal spending on abortion. The Republican Party platform opposes the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortion and declares that “the unborn child has a fundamental right to life.”

The vacancy of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia hangs in the balance in this election, and the Democratic Party platform tells us what their top priority is. When selecting the next Supreme Court Justices and all future nominations to the federal bench, Democrats promise to appoint judges who will “protect” the abortion industry.

The Republican platform explains that there is “a national crisis in our judiciary” due to activism by Democrat-appointed federal judges. “Only a Republican president will appoint judges who respect the rule of law expressed within the
Constitution and Declaration of Independence, including the inalienable right to life and the laws of nature and nature’s God, as did the late Justice Antonin Scalia,” the GOP platform explains.
The Republican platform calls for “rebuilding the U.S. military into the strongest on earth, with vast superiority over any other nation or group of nations in the world.” The Democrats’ platform does not mention military superiority or “American exceptionalism,” but blames Americans for a “recent uptick in Islamophobia.”

A quarter of the Republican Party platform is devoted to a section entitled “America Resurgent,” which sets forth the steps necessary to restore peace through strength while heeding “the wisdom of President George Washington’s warning to avoid foreign entanglements and unnecessary alliances.” The Democratic platform calls for enmeshing the United States in a “global network of alliances.”

Republicans support women’s “exemption from direct ground combat units and infantry battalions” and “reject the use of the military as a platform for social experimentation.” Democrats say “We are proud of the opening of combat positions to women. Our military is strongest when people of all sexual orientations and gender identities are honored for their service to our country.”

The Democratic platform opposes “voter identification laws,” which Democrats falsely describe as discriminatory. Americans are routinely required to show photo ID to board airplanes and enter government buildings, and the integrity of our elections is important enough to require meaningful verification of identity and citizenship before casting a ballot.

The Republican platform, for the first time, calls for building a wall to stop the overrunning of our southern border by illegal aliens: “we support building a wall along our southern border and protecting all ports of entry.” The platform explains that amid “terrorism, drug cartels, human trafficking, and criminal gangs, the presence of millions of unidentified individuals in this country poses grave risks to the safety and sovereignty of the United States.”

In contrast, the Democrats demand amnesty for the many millions of foreigners who entered our country illegally or failed to go home on time, a policy that simply encourages millions more to do likewise. The Democratic platform would grant driver’s licenses, in-state tuition, and citizenship for millions of illegals in our country, the vast majority of whom would then be loyal voters for the Democratic Party.

The Republican platform says “We need better negotiated trade agreements that put America first. When trade agreements do not adequately protect U.S. sovereignty, they must be rejected,” declining to endorse the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the Democratic platform allows.

“These are the standards Democrats believe must be applied to all trade agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” is a face-saving sentence in the Democrats’ platform that gives Hillary Clinton the green light to approve it with minor modifications. Last week one of her top allies, Terry McAuliffe, confirmed that a President Hillary Clinton would embrace this horrible deal, and then he tried to deny it amid an intense backlash.

Teachers’ unions are the backbone of the Democratic Party, and its platform omits any reference to homeschooling. The Republican platform extols the benefits of parental control over education, and praises multiple alternatives to the failing public school system.

The sharp contrast between the Republican and Democratic platforms leaves no room for doubt about which party should receive your vote in November.
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Phyllis Schlafly has been a national leader of the conservative movement since 1964. She founded and is CEO and Chairman of Eagle Forum. She has testified before more than 50 Congressional and State Legislative committees on constitutional, national defense, and family issues.

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