4.9.08

Special Alert: Palin Adds to Euphoria over Strength of GOP Platform

Commentary: Palin Adds to Euphoria over Strength of GOP Platform
by Tom Minnery, senior vice president, Focus Action


'It is the sturdiest pro-life, pro-family document put forth by a major political party in memory.'
The roar when Hurricane Sarah hit St. Paul on Wednesday night at the Republican convention gathered its strength from a source far deeper than just her sparkling speech.
And the media are largely missing that source, in their collective convulsion over John McCain’s selection of the Alaska governor as his running mate. The joy is rooted in the Republican Party platform adopted at this week’s convention. It is the sturdiest pro-life, pro-family document put forth by a major political party in memory.
Sarah Palin ignited the crowd, but they were already primed to blow, in their euphoria over the strength of the platform, and by the ease with which the McCain campaign accepted the platform’s social conservative them es.
The platform stakes a claim to one-man, one-woman marriage, and to the right to life for all preborn children without exception. It calls for the nomination of federal judges who are pro-life, and it even upholds the suitability of the public display of religious symbols like the Ten Commandments.
The platform even stands its ground against an issue McCain has supported — scientific research on human embryos. Surprisingly, the McCain campaign did not object to the prohibition of this research being included in the platform.
Furthermore, the platform paints in primary colors. It boldly asserts that, “This is a platform of enduring principle, not passing convenience… we offer it to our fellow Americans in the assurance that our Republican ideals are those that unify our country.”
And neither is the document ashamed of the “G” word. It states that “Our platform is presented with enthusiasm and confidence in a vision for the future, but also with genuine humility — humility before God …”
For the last year, when none of the social conservatives running for president could emerge from the pack, reporters began saying — no, they began hoping — that those pesky people in the Religious Right would become a spent force in politics. That was a theme in reporters’ questions to me during the primary election season. The theme only strengthened with the death of two national evangelical leaders, D. James Kennedy and Jerry Falwell.

Another thread in that media theme was that in 2008, the Republican Party itself was a spent force, and due for a drubbing on Election Day. But that was before the adoption of this platform, before Sarah Palin’s selection, and before John McCain’s encouraging performance at the Saddleback presidential forum, where he boldly asserted that “life begins at conception.”
Not only are religious conservatives back, they are turning out to be the life of the party.

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