Party Platforms That Are Poles - And Worlds - Apart

With the release of the Democratic Party platform roughly a week following the release of the GOP counterpart, voters are now presented with two starkly different party platforms - indeed, different views of the world and America.  The GOP plan favors the wealthy and seeks to dilute or out right bar the rights of others while the Democrat platform seeks the expansion of rights for those too long subjugated to angry white men and white extremists.  To me, it's the starkest choice perhaps ever presented.  And, in my opinion, unless one is a racist, greed driven, totally lacking in compassion, homophobe, and/or an enemy of the concept of religious freedom for all citizens, I frankly do not see how one can support the GOP platform.  A piece in the New York Times looks at the contrasts.  Here are a few excerpts:

The Democratic platform supports same-sex marriage for the first time — “We support marriage equality and support the movement to secure equal treatment under law for same-sex couples,” it reads — and reaffirms the party’s support for abortion rights. The Republican platform supports the passage of constitutional amendments that would ban abortion and define marriage as “the union of one man and one woman.” 

When it comes to Medicare, the Democratic platform says the party will oppose “any efforts to privatize or voucherize” the program, while the Republican platform would reshape the program for those under 55 so they would get “an income-adjusted contribution toward a health plan of the enrollee’s choice,” including a government plan. 

And while the Democratic platform opposes any privatization of Social Security, the Republican platform says younger workers should be given the option of “personal investment accounts as supplements to the system.” 

While the Democrats failed to enact the promised climate change legislation, they still call it a top priority. “We know that global climate change is one of the biggest threats of this generation — an economic, environmental and national security catastrophe in the making,” their platform says, adding that they “affirm the science of climate change.”  This year’s Republican platform dropped the 2008 section on “addressing climate change responsibly.” The new platform states that it opposes “any and all cap-and-trade legislation.”

The Democratic platform says “the right to organize and collectively bargain is a fundamental American value” and opposes “the attacks on collective bargaining that Republican governors and state legislatures are mounting in states around the country.” The Republicans support right-to-work laws, which weaken unions, and salute “the Republican governors and state legislators who have saved their states from fiscal disaster by reforming their laws governing public employee unions.” 

On taxes, the Democratic platform says that President Obama will fight to extend tax cuts for the middle class while “asking the wealthiest and corporations to pay their fair share.” The Republican platform calls for extending the Bush-era tax cuts.

Where the GOP seeks to take America is a frightening place that moves the country and the rights of many Americans backward in time.  About the only thing the GOP hasn't embraced in its flight to the past is the reenactment of segregation laws.