A brief list of what we have learned so far regarding the Republican platform for this Fall’s election campaign (in no particular order):
1. Cut taxes on Billionaires.
2. Raise Taxes on the poor & the middle class.
3. De-regulate Big Banks and make fraud and insider trading easier if not legal.
4. Drill Baby Drill, and Frack Baby Frack.
5. Eliminate Abortions and Contraception for women.
6. Force women to endure government sanctioned rape by vaginal probes.
7. Make voting a right for white conservatives and a privilege rarely extended to anyone else.
8. Bomb Iran.
9. Bomb Iran some more.
10. Repeal the Affordable Health Care Act (i.e., “Obamacare”) lock, stock and barrel.
11. Eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
12. Eliminate the EPA, the FDA, the SEC, the USDA, and any other agency that regulates any industry that contributes money to Republicans.
13. Eliminate HUD, the Department of Education, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Commerce.
14. Eliminate the Congressional Budgeting Office and the Government Accounting Office.
15. Repeal the Freedom of Information Act and any law that requires open government.
16. Make anything Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgendered people do illegal, from adoption to marriage to loving the people with whom they fall in love.
17. Make “bullying” of LGBT people protected speech (including beatings, threats, stalking and any other forms of violence or abuse.)
18. Make Unions illegal.
19. Eliminate public schools.
20. Make it more and more difficult for young people to go to college by whatever means necessary.
21. Pass stringent laws requiring any non-Republicans to verify he or she is qualified to run for elective office, especially if that person is a minority running as a Democrat.
22. Pass laws that allow States to remove local elected officials and privatize municipalities, school districts, prisons, police forces, fire departments, etc.
23. Shut down libraries.
24. Provide complete immunity to law enforcement agencies that violate the civil rights of any group, organization or individual who exercises their first amendment rights regardless of the level of force employed by law enforcement officials.
25. Provide increased incentives for corporations to move their manufacturing and production production facilities overseas.
26. Eliminate subsidies for Green Technologies and Environmental research (especially scientists who are studying the climate).
27. Make it easier for Fossil Fuel companies to obtain the right to extract coal, oil and natural gas wherever it may be located.
28. Allow companies that extract fossil fuel to have the sole right to determine if they have satisfied any remaining worker safety or environmental laws.
29. Eliminate (or cut the funding drastically) for NOAA, FEMA and the National Weather Service.
30. Eliminate federal tax deductions for all mortgages, for payment of state taxes and for out of pocket health care costs.
31. Mandate the teaching of Creationism as an alternative to Evolution, and eliminate from school science classes the teaching of any topic regarding climate change and the role played by human activities to exacerbate it.
33. Privatize Medicare and Social Security.
34. Eliminate Medicaid.
35. Require prayer in school, especially Christian prayers.
36. Use Taxpayer funds to pay for private schools and subsidize those who choose to home school their children.
37. Require all government documents to be only printed in English, including but not limited to, school materials and voting ballots.
38. Pass strict voter identification laws.
39. Repeal the Antitrust laws.
40. Pass laws permitting child labor beginning at the age beginning somewhere between 6 and 10 years.
41. Eliminate the minimum wage.
42. Repeal the American Disabilities Act.
43. Repeal the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.
44. Enforce DOMA.
45. Reinstate the policy of “Don’t ask, Don’t Tell” for the Military.
46. Require loyalty oaths for all citizens who practice Islam.
48. Make racial profiling legal.
49. Eliminate finding for law enforcement monitoring of radical right wing militias, sovereign citizens organizations, white nationalists, etc.
50. Seek a constitutional amendment authorizing Biblical law to preempt any secular laws, including the Bill of Rights and any laws passed by any government that grants rights to individuals not authorized by Biblical principles.
I could go on but 50 seemed like a good stopping point. Now I do not claim that each and every item listed above will actually be set forth in the platform adopted by the Republican delegates to their 2012 National Convention. I do contend however that this list, written off the top of my head, represents the agenda of a majority of Republican politicians, their financial supporters, and the hard core base of the Republican party. I also contend that you can find support online for each of these positions by Republican candidates and/or their supporters.
Feel free to prove me wrong.
