CLEVELAND – If you thought things couldn’t get any loonier in the Republican Party, readjust your expectations.
On Tuesday, the party’s platform and rules committees passed new planks that make 2012’s GOP agenda look liberal by comparison. The planks won’t be adopted officially until the party convenes July 18-21.
Chief among the changes in the party’s policy are a ramping up of the “war on porn” and hiking the bigot level in regard to gender-related civil rights.
To no one’s real surprise, the GOP’s 2016 platform acquired a plank declaring adult entertainment a “public health crisis” and a “menace.” No substantive discussion preceded the nearly unanimous vote to add the policy point.
“The internet must not become a safe haven for predators,” reads the text of the amendment. “Pornography, with its harmful effects, especially on children, has become a public health crisis that is destroying the life of millions. 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 [is] closely linked to human trafficking.”
The 2012 platform, to which the new verbiage was added, vowed “energetic prosecution of child pornography” and an effort to pass and enforce stronger obscenity laws.
Porn isn’t the only target of the militant, malevolent minions of the arch-conservative religious right. Other planks support:
The sanctity of heterosexual marriage.
Bathroom monitoring for gender-appropriate personal plumbing.
Biblical indoctrination in public schools.
Draconian immigration measures, especially along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Vigilance against electromagnetic pulse attacks (and, presumably, space aliens).
Removal of specific birds from the endangered species list.
Blue Lives Matter (black, brown, yellow, green and purple lives are not addressed).
“Conversion therapy” for children who identify as LGBT.
Widespread bans on abortion and birth control (though not on treatments for erectile dysfunction).
