It’s a political truism that presidential party platforms are only useful for two reasons — to pacify the fringe elements lest they become disruptive during the convention proper, or to provide material for the other side’s oppo research teams. From the reports I’ve seen, so far the DNC has achieved the first goal, and the RNC is busy #WINNING the second.
Reid Epstein, in the Wall Street Journal. “Republicans Descend on Cleveland: What to Watch”:
… After 19 months of intraparty campaigning, the coming fortnight figures to be a break from the quadrennial made-for-TV events to which American political conventions have evolved. There are for the first time in generations serious questions about what the GOP will stand for, in addition to whether it will indeed nominate Donald Trump as its standard-bearer…
The platform discussions that begin today will offer the first signals of Mr. Trump’s hold on the party he aims to lead. The New York businessman is of course under no obligation to follow the GOP platform. Past nominees including Mitt Romney, John McCain and Bob Dole have ignored or disagreed with large portions of the official platforms when they ran for president.
But with Mr. Trump thumbing his nose at leading Republicans on a host of issues – trade, gay rights and immigration, to name three that are expected to be flash points this week – the GOP platform is an opportunity for activists to either embrace his positions as the new stamp of the party, or offer a formal resistance. Activists who dedicate their careers to specific issues have descended on Cleveland already to make sure they have input on the party’s platform…
And so far, according to TIME, the revanchists and Talibangelicals are firmly in control:
… As GOP delegates gather in Cleveland to formulate the party’s principles document, social conservative priorities have dominated the discussion, with several provisions opposition same-sex marriage and endorsing controversial conversion therapy passing preliminary votes Monday. The platform committee approved several of the measures in a sometimes-heated discussion between social conservatives and more moderate Republicans that represent a more conservative shift from the draft platform authored by Republican National Committee staff and outside advisors. But the platform committee softened language calling for legislation in opposition to transgender protections pushed by the Obama administration.
Among the provisions is an assessment that internet pornography is a “public health crisis.”…
An amendment offered by the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins in the subcommittee on healthcare, education, and crime offered support for the controversial practice of “conversion therapy” for children who identify as LGBT…An amendment that sought to argue that gay marriage “subverts child’s rights to biological parent” drew condemnation from the moderate members, including an audible gasp of, “Hello, what was that?” The committee also considered an amendment calling for allowing the teaching of the Bible as part of American History, which failed before the full group…
An aide to Donald Trump, Michael Biundo, was in the room as the subcommittee met, but didn’t offer any guidance or input. Perkins told reporters that Trump’s campaign was allowing the committee to work autonomously, calling it a break from the practice of previous presumptive nominees who have been more invested in the platform discussions…
Trump’s only interest in all the many pages of earnest minutiae that will be finalized tomorrow afternoon will be if some hapless intern set to scouring the documents finds a catchphrase that attracts Lord Short Thumb’s mayfly attention. But it should be very, very helpful to the people writing attack ads for HRClinton… and somewhat terrifying for the rest of us, as a glimpse into the narrow little minds running one of the only two national political parties we have…
Fun times here at the RNC platform meeting where delegates are debating the merits of prohibiting the use of food stamps to buy junk food.
— Molly Ball (@mollyesque) July 11, 2016
GOP platform committee now debating what "junk food" is. oreos vs chocolate covered oreos. Seriously.
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) July 11, 2016
At GOP Platform cmte, Andy Puzder, CEO of Carl's Jr & Hardees, comes out against forbidding welfare benefits from being used on junk food .
— Reid J. Epstein (@reidepstein) July 11, 2016
Update: the amendment was defeated. The GOP takes no position on food stamps & junk food. https://t.co/5wm5CDWcYg
— Molly Ball (@mollyesque) July 11, 2016
Now debating whether states should get to approve national monument/park designations, likely inspired by this https://t.co/WPCuvmTbUV
— Molly Ball (@mollyesque) July 11, 2016
Notable: Platform committee adopts language forcing federal gov't to hand over public lands to the states.
— Ed O'Keefe (@edatpost) July 11, 2016
https://t.co/5zj94H4Hee RT @mollyesque: Added to GOP platform: “The Endangered Species Act should not include species such as grey wolves."
— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) July 11, 2016
Prairie chicken/sage grouse amendment passes, so the GOP is now officially the anti-chicken party.
— Molly Ball (@mollyesque) July 11, 2016
The Republican platform can say coal is clean–or Pepsi is healthy, or Trump's fingers are huge–but that doesn't make it so.
— Michael Grunwald (@MikeGrunwald) July 11, 2016
RNC delegate: “All of the mass killings that have taken place, they’re young boys from divorced families and they’re all smoking pot."
— Molly Ball (@mollyesque) July 11, 2016
Now the GOP is debating whether requiring background checks for private school teachers is an infringement of liberty.
— Molly Ball (@mollyesque) July 11, 2016
Here’s the GOP platform plank that commits the party to protecting against magnetic pulse attacks pic.twitter.com/KXX8zdcYCA
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) July 11, 2016
(Newt Gingrich, Glenn Beck, and Alex ‘Infowars’ Jones all agree this is an underreported threat…)
Warren Terra
Trump’s well-known fondness for slapping gold paint on everything suggests an approach to the looming EMP threat at least: ubiquitous, shiny Faraday cages, as mandatory home decor.
Mr. Mack
Good morning, Rikrah! (And everyone else)
Poopyman
@Mr. Mack: Hmmmm. She’ll be down as soon as she finds her slippers, I’m sure.
Pour me some coffee ….
Poopyman
What’s this about forcing electrical companies to protect the electric grid? I thought the invisible hand would do that.
Poopyman
@Poopyman: I’m sure there’s a solution to the electrical grid issue involving wolves, prairie chickens, and junk food. The platform committee should be working on that.
Mustang Bobby
Internet porn is a health crisis, but guns are okay. So, shooting off one kind of gun is bad but the other kind is good…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Poopyman: You owe me a new keyboard, I just spit Diet Coke on it after reading your comment.
rikyrah
Good Morning ?, Everyone ?
Baud
Dan Rather was on Chris Hayes last night concerned about how the Dems may have moved to far to the left with their platform, and that it could hurt Hillary.
Baud
Betty Cracker will be especially motivated to defeat them this year.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Or at least her chickens will.
Mothra
Laughing out loud, before my feet even hit the floor this morning. Such good tweets and comments.
Amir Khalid
Is that all the Republican platform is to be: right-wing moralising and tinfoil-hat obsessions that don’t amount to a coherent approach to governance? I can’t say that their presumptive nominee is wholly wrong to be indifferent to the process or its output. He’s going to campaign on what the voices in his head tell him anyway, which can’t lead him any more wrong than the party platform will.
OzarkHillbilly
Triple FYWP: From the front page of the Guardian:
Poopyman
@rikyrah: ‘Morning, Sunshine!
(Runs out the door to join the commute.)
CarolDuhart2
Dan Rather: a lot of America has moved that left-especially on the coasts. It’s not our fault you haven’t kept up with things.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: My problem appears to have been in the link. My guess is the NYT has taken over the internet and trying to block any links to criticism of their reporting.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Baud:
Yeah, thanks for the concern trollage Dan. We’ll manage somehow.
Ian
“WE HATE BIG GUBMINT!” except in bathrooms, adoption clinics, women’s bathrooms and uteruses, state monuments, and apparantly anti-emp. At least they recognize the feds are needed for something.
Ultraviolet Thunder
When I am emperor loud music in airport terminals will be banned before dawn.
Write that down.
Another Holocene Human
I love how whenever something goes wrong in the world, conservative activists descend to condemn same sex marriage.
Show me on the doll where same sex marriage touched you.
Ultraviolet Thunder
I’ve heard that Bernie, having extracted sufficient concessions on the platform will disappoint a number of his fans today by supporting HRC officially. Maybe too late but better than never.
Another Holocene Human
@Ultraviolet Thunder: When I am emperor, airport CNN as such will be banned. Nothing but animal planet puppy and kitten specials, maybe some programming about the ocean during prime time because who doesn’t like shots of fishies and octopodes and crabs fighting.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Another Holocene Human:
And dopers. You know those criminals, they’re all on pot.
Another Holocene Human
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Too little, too late. The majority have already switched, and the minority who haven’t include Ron Paullards, GOP trolls, white supremacists, Naderites (some of whom are already pimping Jill Stein by now) and other creatures of the shadows.
Another Holocene Human
@Ultraviolet Thunder: It just seems so absurd for them to be
inveiglinginveighing against the wacky weed. Hey Chicken Little, the sky ought to have fallen by now.eta: I knew I got that wrong
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Another Holocene Human:
YES! Nature shows, and not the Sea World ad kind. Nature makes people calm. CNN’s job is to make us anxious.
?BillinGlendaleCA
A Photo Album documenting my journey on Friday, The Getty & UCLA. There be infrared in this set.
Baud
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
@Another Holocene Human:
That libertarians still prefer the GOP to Dems despite the different approaches to weed tells you all you need to know about libertarians.
Ultraviolet Thunder
I brought Levenson’s book Einstein in Berlin for this flight. I really should read the technical doc on the optical switch I’m going to install, but to heck with that.
Another Holocene Human
@Baud: I knew a libertarian weed head and he wanted to re-elect George W Bush just to see if he could get himself out of the mess he got himself into. I said “What about John Ashcroft?!” The light slowly dawned. Yeah, I guess Ashcroft is coming for me. White former frat boy, no notion that laws applied to him.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Baud:
Yeah, I hear “I’m really a Libertarian ” from a lot of conservatives who have enough wits to stay clear of the GOP. Took their principles across town but they’re still reactionary.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Gotta board.
Cheers.
Frankensteinbeck
These attempts to pretend Trump isn’t the GOP are sad. Only his protectionist trade stance differs from the establishment. His followers hear him more plainly than the media, and as you can see they’re traditional bigots and assholes.
Lurker Extraordinaire
Hey, porn Is a public health threat. Repetitive motion injuries are real, people!
Have a safe flight, Ultraviolet Thunder.
NorthLeft12
I would not be concerned about the Republicans doing anything about Internet porn. Once they called it a “public health crisis” you can pretty much rest assured that they will not do anything about it.
See AIDS, ZIKA, obesity, etc.
Just One More Canuck
@Ultraviolet Thunder: They didn’t take their principles across town – they just took them down to the basement
rikyrah
The turning Federal Landa over to the states is a Koch brothers scheme. They want to be able to destroy the land for commercial purposes.
rikyrah
@Frankensteinbeck:
Trump is absolutely them…no doubt about it.
David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch
the platform stuff isn’t left, it’s economic populist.
raising wages and lowering cost of education
Dan was a very good reporter. But at 85, in semi retirement, cloistered in a Manhattan high-rise, he may not be up to speed with the amazing pace of change that started 7 years ago.
Percysowner
From TPM Clinton’s Lead Over Trump Shrinks Again In Weekly Tracking Poll. I’m not going to feel good until this thing is over. I’ll be phone banking and knocking on doors this year.
David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch
They may not know this, but the guy they nominated ran beauty pageants, openly objectifies and degrades women, is a serial philander, and publicly lusts after his daughter.
Maybe they should address that public health crisis, first.
David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
/fixed
low-tech cyclist
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
My late father went that route 6-7 years back, when he realized that the GOP had gotten way too anti-science for a former chemical engineer to tolerate.
I guess he found the libertarians’ irrationalities easier to put up with than those of the GOP.
low-tech cyclist
Sing along with Avenue Q, everybody: The Internet is for porn!
gvg
so what exactly is this anti prairie chicken thing?
gratuitous
The world according to Republicans: Internet porn is a public health crisis; the proliferation of guns is not, and we shouldn’t even gather data, much less study the subject.
Whenever I see someone decrying internet porn, my first thought is it’s someone who can’t stay away from porn hub, and would like the government to smack the smart phone out of his sweaty clammy hands.
NonyNony
@CarolDuhart2:
What’s happened I think is that a lot of folks haven’t really moved to the left so much as the angry white backlash against desegregation has been aging out of our system. The conservative movement piggy-backed onto white backlash to push a conservative agenda since the 70s – they tried in the 60s but there were too many folks who were adults during the Great Depression to buy into the conservative agenda. As the Silent Generation aged into political power the white resentment card got more powerful as the memories of awful conservative policies receded into memory.
Also too – folks on the left and center-left have given up on the folks on the right meeting us in the middle. Through the 80s and 90s tacking to the center was done based on the assumption that meeting in the middle would lead to compromise. It didn’t work – it only pushed the right wing further to the right. So I think tacking to the center is done as a strategy for another generation or so – the current group of idealists are more about pulling as far to the left as you can than they are about finding a middle ground (unlike the idealists of my own younger days).
Finally – George W Bush discredited conservatism in a way that makes it hard for anyone with a memory of his time in office to take conservatism as an ideology seriously anymore. There’s a good reason that the right wing rallied around Trump rather than Jeb or Rubio or another W-like conservative – because conservative ideology is bankrupt and all that it has left to offer is the white resentment that was only supposed to be used as a tool to win elections.
sigaba
@Mustang Bobby: One is for shooting, one is for fun…
NotMax
They’ve given up on incandescent light bulbs? That was still a Big Thing last time around.
NotMax
@NonyNony
The Overton window is moving, however sluggishly, kicking and screaming at every nudge but moving nevertheless, in the correct direction.
BruceFromOhio
Ignore that Zika virus behind the curtain!
Chris
@Another Holocene Human:
Yeah, this. I mean, I don’t really care. He endorsed, good for him, etc. But the person most hurt by the delay in doing so was him. As you say, the rest of us had moved on.
Chris
@Baud:
“Libertarians are what Republicans call themselves when they’re trying to get laid.”
philpm
In other words, they’ve run out of new porn to watch.
D58826
ot
will try again with the link
chopper
@Ian:
this right wing obsession with EMP attacks really is something.
philpm
@gvg: It’s basically a sop to industry to remove protections for their habitat and allow companies and developers to use that land however they want, environment be damned.
Chris
@NonyNony:
That’s a pretty good comment, I think I agree with all of it. The sweet spot for movement conservatism does seem to be among people who are old enough to have enjoyed the privileges of the 20th century liberal state, but not so old that they actually remember the Great Depression.
Chris
@chopper:
I love the line “EMP is no longer a theoretical threat.” What, as opposed to the Cold War years when the USSR and China had the same exact weapons? It hasn’t been “theoretical” since the fifties, but it hasn’t revolutionized the basic MAD principles either.
Groucho48
@OzarkHillbilly:
A lot of right wingers are trumpeting that study. They love to mention the author of the study is black. I did a bit of digging into Houston’s Officer Involved Shootings:
I eyeballed earlier years and the breakdown seems to be about the same. So, the study’s conclusion on shootings doesn’t seem to add up.
Adam L Silverman
@OzarkHillbilly: @Groucho48: The study has numerous design, methodology, data and operations issues. Aside from the fact that they had to get creative with the data for the outcome variables as they didn’t have complete sets, and personally they should have used the Bayesian BUGS concept to fill in the missing years as its a much more robust way to do it, it would have still be caveated. They also, I think, were missing a number of key explanatory factors that are standard in criminological models. And, I think, they’d have been better suited simply using a poisson distribution as their year over year outcome variable data is non linear and this is the standard/default for doing probabilistic analysis for that kind of data.
Groucho48
@Adam L Silverman:
When presented with sciencey stuff like that, right wingers say…The study author was BLACK!!! If you criticize the report, you are a racist. Then, just giggle. Cause that’s how they roll.
Sondra
My first thought was that this was a joke because it sounds like something the “Onion” would write as a satirical piece.
My second thought was that it’s true and they really are going to make a point of suggesting legislation that addresses junk food.
My third thought was that if they can do anything to hammer on poor people they will do it because that’s what they do these days.
My forth thought was how hilarious is it that the voice of reason was the CEO of a fast food chain which specializes in junk food?