Conservatives Take Issue with 'Unflinchingly Conservative' GOP Platform
by Bill Fancher and Jody Brown
August 31, 2004
(AgapePress) - While most pro-family advocates are praising the Republican Party platform on issues like abortion and marriage, some conservatives say it still falls short of the mark.
Associated Press describes the GOP platform as "unflinchingly conservative." USA Today says it "reflects Bush's conservative agenda" while pushing the party's social principles "further to the right." And the chairman of the Democratic National Committee calls it an "extremist, special-interest document."
Such comments should endear the platform to conservatives across the nation -- but at least one social conservative says there are plenty of areas for concern. And an opposition candidate for president says the platform is evidence that the Republican Party wants to toss "true conservatism" out the door.
Richard Lessner of the American Conservative Union says there is good and bad in the platform -- but he is really concerned about the bad. "Sadly, much of that is about bigger government, more government, larger government, more spending, more programs, more bureaucracy," he offers.
And Lessner says the statement of party policy does deal with the biggest issue of the day. "Almost half of it is devoted to the war on terrorism," he says. "And again, much of it will please conservatives -- but much of it will make conservatives somewhat uneasy, I'm afraid "
Both Lessner and Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum are concerned that amnesty and various benefits for illegal aliens -- such as Social Security, driver's licenses, student loans, and in-state college tuition -- were left in the document.
"The most troublesome part of the platform, I think, is the plank on immigration," Lessner adds. "While rejecting the notion of amnesty, the platform as drafted calls for President Bush's program, which would extend a citizenship path to illegal aliens -- people who broke American law to enter this country."
Meanwhile, strong pro-life and pro-marriage statements were adopted -- but the platform still allows for continued compromise on the issue of stem-cell research.
Michael Peroutka, the Constitutional Party presidential nominee, says such platform planks are "further proof that when it comes to matters of life, death and Constitutional principles, there is no real difference between the Republican and Democratic parties."
"I don't understand how you show respect for someone who advocates for acts that destroy the moral fabric of our society," said Peroutka. "That just doesn't make sense."
The platform for the Constitutional Party, he says, is "100 percent pro-life without exception" and does not recognize or support homosexual relationships in any form, "no matter what euphemism is used to describe them."
