NCGOP waters down 2014 platform
In this case, we hate being right. Some time back, we posted about efforts in the NCGOP platform drafting commitee to remove a lot of the issues important to Tea Party activists. The copy of the platform leaked to us turned out to be pretty close to what got passed at the state convention in Cherokee.
Some Mecklenburg County activists got a plank inserted in the 2013 platform — over the vehement objections of House speaker Thom Tillis and other establishment figures — opposing the installation of toll roads. The 2014 version of the platform has NO MENTION of toll roads. In the drafting committee, the argument for removing it was that it was merely a Mecklenburg issue. Not so. Gov. Pat’s NCDOT board has publicly mentioned toll roads as an option for funding new road construction. Tillis and Skip Stam have lobbied for toll roads within the General Assembly.
ObamaCare is a huge issue that tops everyone’s lists. It was the driving force that gave the GOP control in Raleigh and DC in 2010. Here’s what the party platform has to say in 2014:
[…] Threats to our economic strength such as
budget deficits, the national debt, and
burdensome social welfare programs
including Obamacare should be met with
sound market-based policies designed to
enhance individual rights to life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness.[…]
Yeah. *Just “fix” it.* With the exception of congressmen Mark Meadows and Walter Jones, our delegation to DC was AWOL in the fight against the ObamaCare travesty. Tillis and McCrory had to be dragged kicking and screaming toward the concept of refusing medicaid money to set up health care exchanges. In fact, Tillis tried in 2011 to get state healthcare exchanges established.
The 2014 platform also watered down the 2013 language against gambling. Given the fact that the 2013 convention was held at a casino, it was a bit of a necessity.
To their credit, the platform committee strengthened the language about amnesty between the time the draft leaked to me and the platform’s approval at the convention. Here’s what made the 2014 platform:
We oppose any form of amnesty for
those who, by intentionally violating the
immigration law, disadvantage those who
have obeyed it. Granting amnesty only
rewards and encourages more law
breaking.
What about pushing the feds to enforce the laws and protect our borders? What about allowing states to step in and protect their sovereignty when the feds fall down on the job? This was an improvement over the initial draft, but it is still weak. Hiding behind weasel words like “pathway to citizenship” still looks like an option.
A lot of people dismiss party platforms. Robert Pittenger and Renee Ellmers openly dismiss concerns about amnesty. Most of the GOP delegation to DC fell down on the job in the ObamaCare fight. Tillis left the 2013 convention and went right back to Raleigh to ram through toll road legislation.
Platforms are not binding. But they are meant to give the organization a sense of purpose and meaning. If you turn it into a buffet — where people can pick and choose — what is the value in joining the GOP? WHAT is the point?
That amnesty language was not added by the Platform committee. It was added from the floor by an overwhelming vote. Also added from the floor was language calling for repeal of the Renewable Energy Mandate, the Ethanol Mandate, and the Obama EPA’s carbon rules.
Yes, these successes plus the defeat of Amendment 1 to the POO made me feel the convention wasn’t a total loss. I DO wish there’d been time to attend to the Toll roads issue though.
However, the fact that attendance was a mere 600-plus delegates this year probably didn’t help because certain people who might have led the fight for issues like tolls just werent there.
On a side note, all of Tillis’ anti-conservatism may be catching up to him….now Civitas’ poll has Hagan up by 4. Don’t worry, though. We were assured that only he could beat Hagan. 😉
At least we’re no longer encouraging people to endanger their babies through home-birthing.
The midwife plank was approved for the platform by more than half the delegates present at that convention. I see you think it’s okay for a small group of “elites” to decide that those delegates were wrong. Very shady, in my opinion.
This is why it’s time to abandon both parties and register as an unaffiliated. I prefer the term independent but the parties have forced the issue to use the presumptive label as if you just haven’t decided which party to affiliate with yet. It’s my vote and my choice so let’s make both parties work for my vote. At this point no parties have done a very good job of it!
If you look at how candidates get elected, that is not a very smart strategy unless there is a robust conservative organization among those independents to recruit and support candidates. If conservatives abandon both party structures, then the squishes who are left will put forward squish candidates and you will have nobody to vote for. Conservatives need to control one party to be able to have a structure to support conservative candidates. I know it gets frustrating at time, like with the outrage that just happened in Mississippi, but it is presently the only way forward.
Then when is the time going to be right to forge a New Way? When the old ways of doing something keep on becoming the way we keep doing it again to get a better result, then that is the definition of insanity. We cannot continue the fighting of Progressive ideas and actions while trying to fight them within the Republican Party. Do we continue this fight or find the new path to victory? It took Reagan a few losses and we came back, but with a Media who is sold out to the Liberal message, it appears it is time for some “news” approaches to shake up and take down the soldiers in the killing fields of Liberalism regardless of the”party” warriors who have joined forces to use their power to hold on to their power. If we have to withdraw in order to form a better battle plan, then so be it and the Republican Elites may have to get a reality check at sometime. I think tree are so many long time Republicans struggling with the lack of true Representation in their own party and this past weeks media has been full of proof of the failed and weak leadership that is embarrassing and causing the Liberal crowd to laugh it up at our stupidity.
We need to get conservatives in position to run the Republican Party. The Goldwater / Gardner wing beat the old guard in 1971, and later we had conservative control during the Helms era.
More proof that the NCGOP is run by moderate/Progressive Republicans. Anybody who tells you that the Republican leadership in NC is Conservative is lying.
Hey Tillis, you are NOT a Conservative.