RNC Meeting Roiled By Fighting Over Gay Marriage and Abortion

The Republican Party continues to be plagued by the Frankenstein monster of its own creation: the Christofascists who the so-called GOP establishment stupidly allowed into the ranks of city and county committees looking at short term expediency rather than the metastasizing cancer that was being introduced to the party.  At the RNC's meeting in Memphis, a veritable cat fight broke out between the knuckle dragging, Bible thumping elements and the Nevada delegation which had removed gay marriage and abortion from the state party platform.  The Washington Times looks at the delicious mud slinging that ensued.  Here are some excerpts:

Gay marriage and abortion, divisive issues within the Republican party, have flared again at the RNC’s meeting here, with Nevada’s delegation firing back at criticism of its April decision to remove anti-abortion and anti-gay language from its state platform.

Angered by an email from Oklahoma Republican National Committee member Carolyn McLarty that questioned its loyalty to the national party, the Nevada delegation sent a stinging rebuke to the 168-member national committee.

“The removal of two social issues from our platform does not mean that ‘we’ as individual people are ‘for’ gay marriage or ‘for’ abortion,” the email said. “The removal of these planks recognizes the inappropriateness of the existence of these planks in our platform in the first place.”

“We disagree with Committeewoman McLarty where she said ‘They are symptoms of the infiltration of the Republican Party by those who really want to destroy it,’ ” it said.

The delegation also took issue with Mrs. McLarty, an evangelical Protestant and staunch opponent of abortion, calling its action an “attack on God and family.”

“The Nevada delegation said actions were far from ‘disgraceful’ or ‘insidious,’ and we find her judgment of our delegation wholly inappropriate.”

“The position of the Nevada Republican Party does not impact Oklahoma and neither the Committeewoman nor the RNC have any governance over the will of the Nevada delegation when it comes to the content of the Nevada state platform.”

“Nevada is home to many diverse people, including a very large LGBT population. The GOP is by definition a party of inclusion not exclusion. If we as a political party continue to exclude Americans that agree with our core principles of freedom and limited government, how can we expect to attract new candidates or continue to get quality Republican candidates elected?

The Nevada response argued that “Excluding an entire group of American citizens based solely on their sexual preference toward the same gender is not only divisive but in the 21st century it is unacceptable. “

The Nevada state GOP added: “Our goal as Republicans is to have less Government intrusion in our lives, and having our platform reflect that is commendable. Nevada is leading a charge to focus our party on core principles which are shared by a majority of Americans, including the new generation of voters that is looking to us for leadership on the issue of limited government and personal freedom. We as Republicans can choose to become more relevant to this generation of new voters or we can continue down a path of exclusion and continue to lose elections as a result.”

Logic and reason - and a desire to win elections - rather than a Spanish Inquisition mindset lie on the side of the Nevada delegation.  Logic and reason, of course, make the Nevada delegation's position anathema to the Christofascists who prefer ignorance and bigotry.