Towards a Winning Platform (1)

This wasn't it.  First, what the Republican Party needs is a broadsheet, the 2012 platform was a novella.  We declared our independence and the reasons thereof on a broadsheet... the Republican Party took 62 pages to define why they should be elected.

Let me give you an example:

First the Declaration of Independence: 

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

The 2012 GOP Platform:

Their adherence to the Constitution stands in stark contrast to the antipathy toward the Constitution demonstrated by the current Administration and its Senate allies by appointing "Czars" to evade the confirmation process, making unlawful "recess" appointments when the Senate is not in recess, using executive orders to bypass the separation of powers and its checks and balances, encouraging illegal actions by regulatory agencies from the NLRB to the EPA, openly and notoriously displaying contempt for Congress, the Judiciary, and the Constitutional prerogatives of the individual States, refusing to defend the nation's laws in federal courts or enforce them on the streets, ignoring the legal requirements for legislative enactment of an annual budget, gutting welfare reform by unilaterally removing its statutory work requirement, buying senatorial votes with special favors, and evading the legal requirement for congressional consultation regarding troop commitments overseas.

No kidding, that's one sentence! 

I am sure the author or authors thought themselves quite eloquent, what's the problem?  I am also sure that the majority of voters don't have a clue as to what antipathy is... as in "we went to a nice Italian restaurant and before the main course they served a nice antipathy with prosciutto, olives, artichokes hearts, and some mozzarella cheese". 


Rule #1: KISS, yes I said it... Keep It Simple Stupid. Talk to your audience in words they understand, lawyers and English literature professors aren't going to get you elected, if they guy who changes your oil can't understand it you're wasting your time.

Rule #2: KISS, no it's not a repeat... Keep It Short & Sweet.  Face it, no one is going to read your 62 page thesis on the Republican Party. If you need a forklift to move enough paper to educate 1,000 people as to what you stand for, you're not going to educate enough people to win an election.

Issues.

On Gay Marriage:

It is an assault on the foundations of our society, challenging the institution which, for thousands of years in virtually every civilization, has been entrusted with the rearing of children and the transmission of cultural values.

Melodramatic much? Like abortion, America isn't going to rise or fall on Gay Marriage.  Compare to:

The Republican Party, born in opposition to the denial of liberty, stands for the rights of individuals, families, faith communities, institutions - and of the States which are their instruments of self-government.

Do the words internally inconsistent and self-contradictory mean anything to you?  I have bad news for you, like the proverbial cake you can't have your religious fundamentalists and libertarians too. A winning platform can not be a patchwork quilt of conflicting factional demands, there needs to be a unifying theme and all platform talking points must be consistent with that theme.  So, if the States are "instruments of self-government", why is the federal government involved in the definition of marriage? 

The Republican Party needs to stop allowing themselves to be defined by the other party's talking points.  The Defense of Marriage Act was a statist solution in response to a progressive statist talking point.  Abortion is the same, you're not going to repeal Roe v. Wade, why lie on your back and try to piss up the rope?  The party needs to control not appease faction.

What do you think? What would you change, add, or eliminate from the GOP platform?  Your answers will influence the direction of this... an intended series of posts on fixing the Republican Party platform, on generating broad appeal to the American people.  This series will pop up now and then to address specific issues with the platform on a variety of subjects; taxes, military action, economics, immigration.  What do you want to talk about?

Let's remake the Republican Party, even if it's just here on this blog.