CLEVELAND—Delegates at the Republican National Convention officially adopted the platform recommended by the Platform Committee, called by one “the most conservative platform in modern history.”
Republican delegates from across the nation are accepting the work of the 112-member Platform Committee, ratifying a platform that starkly contrasts with Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.
Here are the highlights:
Marriage
The American family is the foundation of civil society and the cornerstone is marriage, the union of one man and one woman…we do not accept the Supreme Court’s redefinition of marriage and we urge its reversal, whether through judicial reconsideration or a constitutional amendment returning control over marriage to the States.
The Supreme Court and Marriage
We condemn the Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Windsor, which wrongfully removed the ability of Congress to define marriage policy in federal law. We also condemn the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which in the words of the late Justice Antonin Scalia was a “judicial Putsch”—“full of silly extravagances”—that “reduced the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mythical aphorisms of a fortune cookie.” In Obergefell, five unelected lawyers robbed 320 million Americans of their legitimate constitutional authority to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The Court twisted the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment beyond recognition. To echo Scalia, we dissent. We therefore support the appointment of Justices and judges who respect the constitutional limits on their power and respect the authority of the states to decide such fundamental social questions.
Protecting Human Life
The Constitution’s guarantee that no one can “be deprived of life, liberty or property” deliberately echoes the Declaration of Independence’s proclamation that “all” are “endowed by their Creator” with the inalienable right to life. Accordingly, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth. We oppose the use of public funds to perform or promote abortion or to fund organizations, like Planned Parenthood.
Title IX
We emphatically support the original, authentic meaning of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. It affirmed that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” That language opened up for girls and women a world of opportunities that had too often been denied to them. That same provision of law is now being used by bureaucrats – and by the current president of the United States – to impose a social and cultural revolution upon the American people by wrongly redefining sex discrimination to include sexual orientation, or other categories. The agenda has nothing to do with individual rights; it has everything to do with power. They are determined to reshape our schools – or entire society – to fit the mold of an ideology alien to America’s history and traditions. Their edict to the States concerning restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities is at once illegal, dangerous, and ignores privacy issues. We salute the several States which have filed suit against it.
National Defense
We believe that our nation is most secure when the president and the administration prioritize readiness, recruitment, and retention, rather than using the military to advance a social or political agendas. Military readiness must not be sacrificed on the altar of politically correct social agendas, which this administration has done.
Safe Neighborhoods
The next president must restore the public’s trust in law enforcement and civil order, by first adhering to the rule of law himself. Additionally, the next president must cease the sowing the seeks of division and distrust between the police and the people they have sworn to serve and protect. The Republican Party, a party of law and order, must make clear in words and actions that every human life matters.
Economic Growth
Republicans consider the establishment of a pro-growth tax code a moral imperative.
We condemn attempts by activist judges at any level of government to seize the power of the purse from the people’s elected representatives by ordering higher taxes.
Republican budgets will prioritize thrift over extravagance and put taxpayers first. We support the following test: Is a particular expenditure within the constitutional scope of the federal government? Of not, stop it.
Health Care
Any honest agenda for improving health care must start with repeal of the dishonestly named Affordable Care Act of 2010: Obamacare. It weighs like the dead hand of the past upon American medicine.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach—who authored both the language on the Supreme Court and marriage honoring Scalia, and also wrote the wildly popular language on the border wall previously analyzed by Breitbart News, says, “We fought for, and won, a socially conservative platform today.”
Texas delegate and conservative Christian leader David Barton made the point in historical terms, saying the 2016 Republican Platform “is the most conservative platform in modern history.”
Former Platform Committee Vice Chairman Ken Blackwell concurred, telling Breitbart News:
The media’s crowing of the death of Reagan Republicanism has proven premature. The Republican Party in 2016 has shown that it still holds to the timeless truths of constitutional fidelity that were the hallmark of Ronald Reagan, and that conservatives of all stripes should enthusiastically mobilize to defeat Hillary Clinton in November.
Ken Klukowski is senior legal editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski.
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