Next week being the Republican National Convention, this week
brought that peculiar pre-convention ritual, the platform debate.
This is the when party activists of various stripes, behaving as if
the outcome is extremely important, negotiate for hours to change a
sentence or two in a document that almost no one reads.
Consider the saga of the “unity plank.” The platform’s initial
draft contained this nod to intraparty ideological splits:
Steadfast in our commitment to our ideals, we recognize
that members of our party can have deeply held and sometimes
differing views. This diversity is a source of strength, not a sign
of weakness, and so we welcome into our ranks all who may hold
differing positions. We commit to resolve our differences with
civility, trust, and mutual respect, and to affirm the common goals
and beliefs that unite us.
Apostates within the party — chiefly the Republicans For Choice
and the Log Cabin Republicans — fought to “strengthen” this
language, with their proposed alternative:
We recognize and respect that Republicans of good faith
may not agree with all the planks in the party’s platform. This is
particularly the case about those planks dealing with abortion,
family planning, and gay and lesbian issues. The Republican Party
welcomes all people on all sides of these complex issues and
encourages their active participation as we work together on those
issues upon which we agree.
Finally, a compromise was reached. The final version, a joint
proposal by a pro-choice delegate and a pro-life delegate, working
with their respective groups:
As the party of the open door, while steadfast in our
commitment to our ideals, we respect and accept that members of our
party can have deeply held and sometimes differing views. This
diversity is a source of strength, not a sign of weakness, and so
we welcome into our ranks all who may hold differing positions. We
commit to resolve our differences with civility, trust, and mutual
respect, and to affirm the common goals and beliefs that unite
us.
Earthshaking, no? Republicans no longer merely “recognize”
differences within their ranks, but now “respect and accept”
them.
Overwrought as the platform kabuki dance is, this plank actually
affirms a critical principle. It’s no coincidence that the GOP
ascended into power as activists on the left drove pro-life
Democrats nearly to extinction. For Republicans to mirror this
purge — as some conservatives sometimes seem to want to do —
would be electoral suicide in a number of marginal and
Democratic-leaning states where the GOP remains competitive.
This isn’t an argument for complete surrender. The country may
be divided on cultural issues, but that hasn’t stopped social
liberal Arnold Schwarzenegger from succeeding with a balanced
budget referendum and forcing Democrats to compromise on workers’
compensation reform in California. Another social liberal, Linda
Lingle of Hawaii, is one of only eight governors who has signed the
Americans for Tax Reform anti-tax pledge.
Gov. Bob Ehrlich has held the line on income taxes in Maryland,
including vetoing a tax hike; when he became the first Republican
to sign a bill relaxing penalties for medical marijuana, he noted
that “there are clearly two wings of the party on social issues.
One is more conservative, and one is more libertarian. I belong to
the latter, and I always have.” The constituents of the remaining
Rockefeller Republicans — named, lest we forget, for the governor
who first gave New York its sales and income taxes — would be
better served by Republicans in that libertarian mold; their
antipathy to strongly conservative politicians is almost entirely
cultural.
All that said, activists touting the party’s ideological
diversity would do well to learn some humility. Patrick Guerriero,
the Log Cabin Republicans’ Executive Director, does himself no
favors when he undermines the rhetoric of “unity,” as he did in the
press release announcing the push for the unity plank, by drawing a
distinction between “inclusive voices” — Schwarzenegger, Rudy
Giuliani— and “the voices of exclusion” — Gary Bauer, Rick
Santorum. As frustrated as a gay activist like Guerriero might be
with Santorum, such name calling does not help us “work together on
those issues upon which we agree.”
