The Republican Party Platform

You can find it here. It's essentially a 67-page diatribe. Here are some excerpts...

One sign of our unity is our English language. For newcomers, it has always been the fastest route to prosperity in America. English empowers. We support English as the official language in our nation, while welcoming the ethnic diversity in the United States and the territories, including language. Immigrants should be encouraged to learn English. English is the accepted language of business, commerce, and legal proceedings, and it is essential as a unifying cultural force. It is also important, as part of cultural integration, that our schools provide better education in U.S. history and civics for all children, thereby fostering a commitment to our national motto, E Pluribus Unum. Which is Latin. Our motto is an even greater sign of our unity than English.

Republican leadership, from the presidency to the Congress, has given America the best-manned, best-trained, best-equipped, and best-led military in the world. That is a radical change from the late 1990’s, when national defense was neglected and under-funded by the Clinton Administration. Our Armed Forces today are modern, agile, and adaptable to the unpredictable range of challenges in the years ahead. We pledge to keep them that way. This from the party that shortchanged GIs so much many personally purchased kevlar vests and cannibalized downed vehicles for additional armor.

To be successful international leaders, we must uphold international law, including the laws of war, and update them when necessary. Our moral standing requires that we respect what are essentially American principles of justice. In any war of ideas, our values will triumph. Presumably "update them when necessary" involves our ideas of how we define torture.

The other malignant element in hemispheric affairs is the anachronistic regime in Havana, a mummified relic from the age of totalitarianism, and its buffoonish imitators. And that differs from China's government in what way?

The federal government collects $2.7 trillion a year from American families and businesses. That’s $7.4 billion a day. Even worse, it spends over $3 trillion a year: $8.2 billion a day. Why? Largely because those who created this bloated government will not admit a single mistake or abolish a single program. Outrage at the Republican-led Congress's greatest spending spree ever?

Americans hit by disaster must never again feel abandoned by their government. The Katrina disaster taught a painful lesson: The federal government’s system for responding to a natural calamity needs a radical overhaul. FEMA was working great until it was downgraded and politicized. I'm surprised at the tacit admission that Katrina victims felt abandoned.

Judicial activism is a grave threat to the rule of law because unaccountable federal judges are usurping democracy, ignoring the Constitution and its separation of powers, and imposing their personal opinions upon the public. This must stop. We condemn the Supreme Court’s disregard of homeowners’ property rights in its Kelo decision and deplore the Court’s arbitrary extension of Americans’ habeas corpus rights to enemy combatants held abroad. We object to the Court’s unwarranted interjudicial fiats that disenfranchised the American people. The Supreme Court consists of activist judges? And they're unaccountable? And they ignore the Constitution?

I find it curious and disturbing that concern about unborn children is not in the Health Care section or in the Protecting Our Families section, but in the Preserving Our Values section along with the right to bear arms, not desecrating the flag, saying the Pledge of Allegiance, preserving traditional marriage, property rights, and taking care of Native Americans.

There is no shortage of invective in this document. It's full of fear mongering, blaming, and name calling.