Confused by politics? Think all politicians are alike? Well then, here’s a quick and easy guide to telling Republicans apart from Democrats this month, as the GOP and DNC prepare for their respective conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia:
DNC: the platform is already being hailed as the “most LGBTQ-inclusive in history,” according to the Washington Blade, but now it’s LGBT-supersized with new language calling on the State Department to include LGBT human rights in foreign policy. That’s following presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton’s statement as secretary of state in 2011: “gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.”
GOP: The Republicans have a plank or two or three on gay rights, too. For more, let’s get the perspective of the Log Cabin Republicans, who somehow maintain being gay and Republican without imploding. They sent a fundraising letter to supporters Wednesday afternoon, telling them: “the Republican Party passed the most anti-LGBT Platform in the Party’s 162-year history.”
How so? Antigay activist, delegate and leader of the certified hate group, Family Research Council, Tony Perkins, introduced and won an amendment endorsing “ex-gay” conversion therapy, which has been denounced by medical professionals and outlawed in several states. Conservatives also pushed through a plank calling for an end to marriage equality, either through a reversal of the Supreme Court decision or by a Constitutional amendment giving power over marriage to the states. In addition, the GOP platform endorses so-called “religious freedom” acts and the First Amendment Defense Act, both designed to circumvent marriage equality. And while this platform does not call for a Constitutional amendment enshrining marriage between one man and one woman for the first time since 2004, it does stress that “our laws and our government’s regulations should recognize marriage as the union of one man and one woman and actively promote married family life as the basis of a stable and prosperous society.”
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DNC: for the first time ever, the party calls for the abolition of the death penalty. Whereas just four years ago, Democrats pledged to preserve “Americans’ Second Amendment Right to own and bear firearms,” this time the Dems are telling gun owners “yeahnothanksbye.” As the Wall Street Journal pointed out, there is not one reference to the Second Amendment in this platform, and it mentions guns eight times.
“We can respect the rights of responsible gun owners while keeping our communities safe. We will expand background checks and close dangerous loopholes in our current laws, hold irresponsible dealers and manufacturers accountable, keep weapons of war—such as assault weapons—off our streets, and ensure guns do not fall into the hands of terrorists, domestic abusers, other violent criminals, and those with severe mental health issues.”
The only thing with more mentions in the Democrats’ platform is “LGBT,” which is mentioned 11 times — and Sanders supporter David Braun is upset the party left out “Q” and has called for it to be added to both a plank and the platform itself, reports the Washington Blade.
GOP: the final draft of the party’s 2016 platform calls pornography “a public health crisis that is destroying the life of millions.” The plank goes on to say:
“We encourage states to continue to fight this public menace and pledge our commitment to children’s safety and well-being. We applaud the social networking sites that bar sex offenders from participation. We urge energetic prosecution of child pornography which closely linked to human trafficking.”
Porn, then is to GOP a public health crisis. Not guns, which The New Civil Rights Movement notes, are cited in the Democratic platform as responsible for 33,000 deaths each year. Not the Zika virus, considered deadlier than Ebola. Not, especially not, climate change. Because the platform isn’t only about what Republicans hate. It’s also about love. Republicans love coal.
The RNC’s draft platform officially declared coal to be “an abundant, clean, affordable, reliable domestic energy resource,'” according to Grist. After all, the climate experts at the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity lauded coal as America’s “affordable, abundant and increasingly clean domestic energy resource that is vital to providing reliable low-cost electricity.”
Read the Republicans’ draft platform here and Democrats’ draft platform here. Neither are official until voted on at the party conventions.
