A party platform is a dense read, to be sure, a smorgasbord of ideas offered to satisfy various interests within the party.
Tedious? Yes, but far from unimportant.
A recent found that more people care about what’s in a party platform than they do in the convention speeches given by the party’s nominees, either Republican or Democrat.
With the having just concluded, and the about to get started, it’s an opportune moment to reflect on how the platform defines the party’s direction.
The Republican Party’s hard right shift in its party platform since the days of Ronald Reagan is particularly stark.
The supports English as the nation’s official language. It rejects gay marriage and backs a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as the union of a man and woman.
It opposes all gun control legislation, even the banning of large capacity clips.
It demands federal funding be cut off to any university that gives in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants. And it supports the public display of the Ten Commandments.
As a recent pointed out, the Republican platform from 1980 said Hispanics should not be barred from education or employment opportunities because “English is not their first language.”
The analysis also detailed broad shifts on issues as disparate as mass transit and abortion. Dense housing and mass transit have become “social engineering.” And the party has hardened its anti-abortion position.
It’s a deep red platform when in fact what we have is a purple nation.
The Democrats’ 2012 platform is in draft form, but the big news thus far is its
Public opinion has shifted dramatically on the issue in recent years, and at about 48 percent support, 44 percent opposition.
Are the Democrats hewing to public opinion? Perhaps. But it’s the right move, nevertheless.
Other Democratic Party planks aren’t so easy to support. In 2008, the included the pledge not to increase taxes on anyone earning $250,000 or less.
Raising taxes isn’t particularly popular, but it’s unrealistic to exempt this broad swath of Americans from a plan to balance the budget, one that should include a balance of revenue increases and budget cuts.
We’ll be interested to see whether that $250,000 line of demarcation is in the final Democratic platform.
Recently, GOP House Speaker John Boehner about whether anyone really reads party platforms.
And while they’re certainly not topping best-seller lists, they provide a history of the evolution of a party’s core beliefs, and are valuable predictors of a party’s future.
