[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Social Conservatives Wield Influence on Platform

Tue Aug 31 11:19:06 PDT 2004

The article below from NYTimes.com 
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Social Conservatives Wield Influence on Platform

August 31, 2004
 By ROBIN TONER and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK 

Republicans approved a platform yesterday that puts the
party firmly on the record against legalized abortion, gay
marriage and other forms of legal recognition for same-sex
couples, reflecting the political clout of social
conservatives and setting up a stark contrast with the
Democrats for the fall campaign. 

The platform also hails President Bush's fight against
terrorism, advocates making his tax cuts permanent and
calls for the creation of personal investment accounts in
Social Security as part of a new "ownership society'' that
Republicans assert will give Americans more responsibility
and control over their financial lives. 

The 93-page document, produced under the tight control of
the Bush forces, tries to accomplish several political
tasks: promoting and defending Mr. Bush's record,
particularly on national security; sketching a domestic
vision for a second term; and energizing the party's
conservative base. 

Democrats and their allies immediately denounced the
platform as extremist and at odds with the moderate image
the party is trying to project this week. 

"It's the truth behind the facade of their convention,''
said Stephanie Cutter, spokeswoman for Senator John Kerry,
the Democratic nominee. "It reflects the divisiveness and
extreme policies of the last four years, while the public
speakers paint a very different picture.'' 

Gay rights and abortion rights groups restated their
dismay. Cheryl Jacques, president of the Human Rights
Campaign, a gay rights organization, declared, "It's one of
the most discriminatory platforms in modern history.'' She
added, of Mr. Bush, "He's counting on the fact that most
people won't be reading the letter of the law of the
Republican platform." 

Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader and chairman of the
Republican platform committee, hailed the platform, titled,
"A Safer World, A More Hopeful America,'' as a tribute to
Mr. Bush when he presented it to the convention yesterday. 

"Our platform highlights the principles that unite our
party,'' Mr. Frist said. "We stand squarely, fully and
firmly with President George W. Bush in a time of profound
national and historic consequence.'' 

Reflecting the altered world since the last Republican
platform was written four years ago in Philadelphia, half
of the document is devoted to national security, and what
it asserts are Mr. Bush's sweeping achievements in the
fight against terrorism. "The president's leadership has
achieved successes once deemed impossible to realize in so
short a time,'' it declares. 

Hailing the president's "steadfast resolve'' in response to
the attacks of Sept. 11, the platform declares: "There is
no negotiation with terrorists. No form of therapy or
coercion will turn them from their murderous ways. Only
total and compete destruction of terrorism will allow
freedom to flourish.'' 

The platform also describes the war with Iraq, which
brought hundreds of thousands of protesters to the streets
of New York this week, as justified and successful. "Iraq,
which once had the worst government in the Middle East, is
now becoming an example of reform to the region,'' it says.

Republicans also used the platform to promote the ownership
society and "reformed'' government that are expected to be
a highlight of Mr. Bush's speech Thursday night as he tries
to offer a conservative approach to such bread and butter
issues as retirement and health care. 

Mr. Kerry has proposed rolling back the Bush tax cuts for
those making more than $200,000 a year and using the money
for new health care initiatives. The Republican platform
echoes Mr. Bush and says the cuts must be made permanent.
"We believe that good government is based on a system of
limited taxes and spending,'' it says. "The taxation system
should not be used to redistribute wealth or fund
ever-increasing entitlements and social programs.'' 

The platform describes the current deficit of $445 billion
as "unwelcome but manageable,'' and argues that it should
be reduced by cutting spending, not limiting tax cuts. 

Republicans also called once again for "strengthening
Social Security with ownership,'' allowing workers to
direct part of their payroll taxes to personal investment
accounts. Critics assert that the transition costs of such
partial privatization would be huge because tax revenues
would be diverted from the Social Security system into the
private accounts. 

The Democratic platform declares that it opposes replacing
the current benefit with any system "subject to the whims
of the market or the economy.'' 

Party platforms are not binding on a candidate, but are
generally considered a snapshot of the party's ideological
and political imperatives in an election year. The current
platform shows the major role that social conservatives are
playing in the Republican Party as it heads into an
extremely competitive race in which each party must turn
out its core supporters. 

On abortion, the Republican Party restates its longstanding
commitment to a "human life amendment'' to the
Constitution, declaring that "the unborn child has a
fundamental individual right to life which cannot be
infringed.'' Chances of passing such an amendment in
Congress have been considered slim for many years. The
platform also hails Mr. Bush for signing and defending the
Partial Birth Abortion Act, a ban on a type of second and
third trimester abortions. That law was recently held
unconstitutional by two federal courts. 

Social conservatives, who pushed Mr. Bush to endorse a
federal constitutional amendment against gay marriage
earlier this year, pushed for even stronger language in the
platform, and succeeded. Mr. Bush has indicated that he
embraced a constitutional amendment opposing same-sex
marriage only as a last resort to prevent courts from
deciding the issue and said that states should be free to
recognize same-sex civil unions or domestic partnerships.
But the platform, as amended by the conservatives on the
platform committee, condemns not only gay marriage but also
state recognition of other same-sex unions as well. 

At a news conference yesterday, Tony Perkins, president of
the Family Research Council, a group of social
conservatives, said that the push to strengthen the
platform's opposition to same-sex civil unions was partly a
response to Vice President Dick Cheney's statement last
week that he personally favored leaving the issue up to the
states. 

"We are obviously troubled by the vice president's comments
last week, which in ways led to the strengthening of the
language in the platform,'' Mr. Perkins said. 

Mr. Kerry has said he opposes same-sex marriage, but also
opposes a constitutional ban on it. The Democratic platform
declares, "Marriage has been defined at the state level for
200 years and we believe it should continue to be defined
there." 

On another volatile issue, the platform applauds the
president's decision to restrict federal financing for
research using embryonic stem cells. Again, some
conservatives tried to call for additional restrictions on
privately financed research, but Dr. Frist, a close ally of
the White House and a medical doctor, fought off that
effort. 

In a gesture to moderates, the Republican platform added a
"unity plank," acknowledging that party members of good
will might disagree. But the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay
group, and Republicans for Choice faulted the plank for
failing to specify the divisive social issues: abortion,
stem-cell research and same-sex marriage. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/31/politics/campaign/31platform.html?ex=1094976346&ei=1&en=b4f5c9bdb273fc8c

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