It wasn’t enough for the national Republican Party to do everything possible to defeat Tea Party candidates Rand Paul, Joe Miller, and Christine O’Donnell.
Now they’re rolling out a national platform that calls for federal intervention on hot-button social issues, less than two months out from the mid-term elections at a time when Americans are hurting economically and are clearly sick of failed Big Government policies.
This despite the fact that gay marriage didn’t even rank into the top five issues the attendees of the Values Voter Summit said they’re worried about. (Abortion was the first and the other issues were economic.)
This is the same Republican Party that pushed a radical, bigoted social-issue agenda in the 2006 mid-term elections and subsequently lost their majority in both chambers of Congress. (Yes, there were other factors in the 2006 Republican losses.)
The agenda will be released tomorrow, but it will include commentaries on homosexuality and abortion. The Republican Liberty Caucus has no position on abortion, but we were among the only Republican Party caucus groups that spoke out against George W. Bush’s Federal Marriage Amendment.
There seems to be a Republican obsession with homosexuality. Yesterday the Republican Senate, without a single dissenter, crushed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Now Republicans are rolling out a national agenda singing the praises of federal involvement in marriage. As the RLC stated in our 2004 press release on the FMA, “Marriage should not be dictated, endorsed, subsidized or restricted by any government. The right to pursue individual happiness is a fundamental liberty that should be free of all state intervention. True love and genuine personal commitment do not need legal support or sanction.”
Publishing and disseminating a national agenda before the mid-terms is probably a good idea for the Republican Party. The use of hot-button social issues may be a distraction to some, but surely has the potential to alienate core constituencies of the Republican Party: libertarian-leaning Republicans, moderate Republicans, independents, and certain segments of the Tea Party.
Will the Republican Party ever abandon its desire to involve the federal government in the lives of law-abiding American citizens?
On September 22nd, 2010 at 11:04 pm
[...] According to Politico, Congressman Pence is the individual responsible for injecting social issues injected into the 2010 national Republican Party policy agenda. [...]
On September 23rd, 2010 at 1:57 am
Our local RLC Chapter is pro-life, pro-marriage, and anti-gambling. It is not libertarian. It is the ‘conscience of the Republican party’ in that it sticks to the Republican platform when the Republicans don’t.
This agenda you have described above is more of a liberal social agenda. The tea party people are generally to the right of the GOP that doesn’t follow its own platform.
On September 23rd, 2010 at 5:22 am
September 21, 2010 For Immediate Release
Broward Log Cabin Club of Florida
P.O. Box 1281, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33302
(954) LCR-1995
DADT Senate Vote Marred by Politicizing
Ft. Lauderdale, FL – September 21, 2010. The Broward Log Cabin Republican Club of Florida is obviously disappointed by the failure of the Senate to rescind the DADT ban against gays in the military yet understands that attaching such a trough of partisan add-on-divisive issues to a major military bill and subsequently moving to limit amendments by Republicans simply fed into political fury and polarization in the final day of this lame duck session of the U.S. Senate.
Today, many egalitarians listened to the negative spin presented by Marine General James Conway suggesting that “gays in the military” are not only unacceptable but seemingly unfit to serve side by side with fellow Americans. “In my eyes this type of rhetoric seemingly parallels the inhospitable fear mongering faced by President Harry S. Truman when it was suggested that ‘people of color’ were unfit to serve side by side with white personnel,” noted Jack Majeske the Past President of Broward Log Cabin Republican Club.
“What is even more disturbing is the allegations that this process was all about politics and not human rights nor equality, the very issues entwined in our Founding Father’s belief that ‘all men are created equal’ and as citizens are entitled to enjoy ‘Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,’ ” noted Mrs. Sandy Steen, the Broward LCR Club President. Steen continued, “Most locals remember me as a Mayor who practices the essence of those Christian teachings of brotherly love found in the “Sermon on the Mount” and not a politician enabling disharmony and division through mean-spirited rhetoric which often nourishes the seeds of hostility.”
Andy Eddy, a long-time Florida Republican activist and a former Log Cabin Federation Southeast U.S. Regional Director said, “I agree with Republican Senator Susan Collins who supported the lifting of the ban but who voted against this bill simply because it was intentionally void of Republican input. I sided with the Honorable Susan Collins who criticized Senator Reid, the majority leader, for politicizing the entire legislation in an obvious election year ploy to totally demonize all Republicans, both friend and foe, over this human rights issue and other matters of concern.”
A number of high ranking military leaders, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have all supported the repeal of DADT and only recently Log Cabin Republicans won a stunning legal victory in California against DADT, a lengthy battle which was defended by Attorney General Holder, an appointee of President Obama. “Yet, on this very day, many are wondering if President Obama will instruct the Attorney General to appeal that decision or simply allow the Clinton-Nunn Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell ban to fade into historical oblivion,” Eddy further reiterated.
For information about the Broward Log Cabin Republican Club of Florida call (954) LCR-1995. For details about other clubs elsewhere visit the LCR.org site and discover how to financially and physically support this inclusive movement enabled by Republicans who are fiscally conservative and socially moderate in their “New Age Republican” outreach and thinking.
On September 23rd, 2010 at 6:58 am
Do you really not see what “same sex marriage” will ultimatley lead to? This is a politically correct movement set on destroying what is left of family to the detriment of society and especially the next successive generations of children . Homosexuality is a BEHAVIOR that is being imposed on the rest of us to endorse, and with it any sexual perversion that comes down the slippery slope.
On September 23rd, 2010 at 7:34 am
We all know how the Contract for America worked out last time. Jobd shipped overseas and plenty of work for Illegal Immigrants. I am more on board with the Tea Party’s Contract with America than the Republocrat contact and I haven’t even read the whole contract yet. None of these address the unconstitutional wars and auditing the Federal Reserve, which are at the forefront of our financial problems.
On September 23rd, 2010 at 9:11 am
Observer, if your RLC chapter is not libertarian, then it should not be RLC. That is because the RLC is explicitly libertarian, founded by libertarians, and based on libertarian principles. Go read our statement of principles.
While pro-life is a valid libertarian stance, anti-gambling certainly is not. The RLC rejects any government control over the private non-violent behavior of individuals. We want to keep government out of your wallet AND your bedroom.
You are not so holy that you have been given special dispensation to cast stones at sinners.
On September 23rd, 2010 at 11:09 am
Gays in the Military and Gay Marriage
Two hot buttons that should not be part of any Republican Platformt because they pale in significance to issues of clearly and agreeably freedom impacting. But here are some Libertarian perspectives.
Gays in the military. Gay men are attracted to and get pleasure from other men. Lesbians the same. Now there is an unfairness here that complicates the issue to the point where I do not have an answer. The G/Ls would have an advantage over the straights. If they get to shower naked and sleep among those of their sexual desire, why should not the straights. I personally would enjoy showering with naked women, as the G/Ls get to do the way it is handled now. There are only two “fair” answers. Totally eliminate any distinction between, or should I say among, the sexes. Totally isolate every individual. I vote for the first.
Marriage is a different issue. What nobody is seeing is the distortion of marriage. Marriage is an obligation. Marriage is not a right or benefit as the G/L mainstream seems to be demanding. Marriage is assigning legal responsibility to those responsible for creating dependencies.
People get married. They have children (in which way does not matter). Marriage defines the responsibility of the parents toward the children, the dependency of the child. That is marriage.
Couples live together, sometimes under the premise that one will support the other for whatever reason. That support creates a dependency (the length of time impacts the dependency degree). That is marriage.
People who live together and do not create any dependencies should not be legally considered married.
Notice not one word of male or female.
On September 23rd, 2010 at 11:59 am
Great Job Aaron
It is past time for the leaders and members of the RLC to
throw down the gauntlet before the Neaderthal Republicans
and declare “eternal hostility to every form of tyranny over the mind of man”. That would include Homophobia, Xenophobia and blind-nationalism.
Perhaps the RLC should consider adding a Phoenix sitting atop the head of the elephant, so that government “of the people, by the people, for the people” will not perish when the RP elephant is consumed in it’s own flames.
On September 23rd, 2010 at 8:39 pm
Observer, you have a very confused RLC chapter, to say the least.
On October 8th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Aron talks of the Repub Party as a third part when we, the RLC, are an important part of the Party. We are the party. It is up to us to influence the party with the best libertarian advice on the issues.
To say that the party: “pushed a radical, bigoted social-issue agenda” is a false statement from a biased view on certain issues as abortion, homosexuality and marriage. Libertarians are “live and let live” people; I think we can agree on that. It is not bigoted to refuse to support special status for homosexuals, to change the definiton of marriage or to kill babies.
Why a Log Cabin Club? Aren’t we “all created equal? Why separate us by conditions that have nothing to do with politics unless to use politics and the law for an advantage? The Dems have their Black Caucus and a myriad of special interest divisions to gain special advantages that cannot be justified from a libertarian view.
We –libertarians and conservatives, too– have been cleansing the party of the RINOs who play with the Dems to take our feedoms. We are an important faction and gaining every day.