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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA letter to the good people of Iowa: Are you crazy? (re. republican party platform)
Dear Iowa,
I used to think you were a pretty straight-ahead place, what with all that flat land and healthy vegetables and honest living. I mean, Iowans rejected slavery 20 years before the Civil War and they approved interracial marriage a century before the U.S. Supreme Court. Homosexuality was decriminalized almost 30 years before the 2003 Lawrence vs. Texas decision did so nationwide. Today, control of the states Legislature is split between Democrats and Republicans and, a few characters aside, it is not known for political extremism. Like the corn it produces in such copious amounts, Iowa generally seemed a healthy and sensible place.
That idea of the state ended for me last week when I read the proposed platform released by the platform committee of the Republican Party of Iowa.
Are you people totally insane?
The platform is absolutely thick with ideas from the extreme right, lunatic conspiracy theories, and barely concealed hatred for President Obama and anything that smacks of multiculturalism. It sneers at science, is down on poor people, and despises, really despises, the United Nations.
Heres a sampling of the deep-thinking goals of the Iowa GOP:
Reject the claims of global warming, which are based on fraudulent, inaccurate information and pushed by people using extremist scare tactics. The Iowa GOP recognizes that policies and laws designed to combat global warming are really a plan to take our freedoms and liberties away.
Oppose the diabolical collusion of the United Nations in promoting its Agenda 21, a non-binding global sustainability plan signed by President George H.W. Bush and the leaders of 177 other nations in 1992. Like the Republican National Committee, the Iowa GOP apparently believes Agenda 21 is part of an effort to impose global political control on the U.S.
Allow Iowa to nullify any federal laws it doesnt like. Nullification was a failed legal argument made by opponents of the civil rights movement.
Eliminate the Federal Reserve Act and implement a sound commodity-backed currency with a gold or silver standard.
Fight the North American Union, which would do away with our borders and sovereignty, and [battle] the Amero, which would do away with our currency. Although there actually are no secret plans to merge Mexico, the United States and Canada into a single entity and replace our dollars with Ameros that hasnt stopped the conspiracy theorists.
In the same vein, oppose so-called One-World Government.
Entirely eliminate the departments of Agriculture, Education, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Energy, Interior, Labor and Commerce, along with the Transportation Safety Administration, the Food and Drug Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Endowment for the Arts, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Likewise, abolish the Internal Revenue Service and repeal the 16th Amendment, which legalized the federal income tax.
Require judges to instruct jurors that in addition to judging cases, they may pass on the law at issue. Commonly known as jury nullification, this is a highly controversial notion that is embraced by the radical right.
Oppose federal anti-bullying legislation because, after all, students have the right and responsibility to stand up for themselves.
Pass a stand your ground law, like the one that many believe led to the death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. By a large margin, most prosecutors and police oppose such laws, which make prosecuting many killings difficult.
Allow parents to refuse to have their children immunized.
Reject the teaching of multiculturalism.
Only teach evolution as a theory, along with creationism.
Repeal compulsory school attendance laws.
Outlaw pornography.
Impose more severe consequences for convicted juvenile offenders.
Eliminate the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which oversees job safety.
Repeal smoking bans because, as the platform statement asserts, We believe this to be an issue of liberty. Air quality in all businesses should be left up to owners freedom to choose.
Repeal all hate crime laws.
Oppose the imposition of Shariah, or Islamic religious law, in the United States, along with any other foreign or United Nations Law.
Build a fence along the entire U.S. border with Mexico.
Eliminate no-fault divorce laws and require good cause to get a divorce.
End minimum wage laws.
Oppose abortion and reject the Supreme Courts decision authorizing it. Encourage adoption and aid to unwed mothers but only if every dollar of support comes from the private sector.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120529/OPINION/305290021/-1/SPORTS12/Another-View-letter-good-people-Iowa-you-crazy-
Thanks to the Iowa republican party for providing us with such a convenient list of current craziness and right-wing paranoia. You can't go far wrong just taking the opposite position on every issue that the Iowa repubs have taken a stance on in their platform. I wonder how many of these will be adopted by the national party.
Very Sad
Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)As I've said before, I have never met any of these people and can only guess they are King Repugs on Koch.
rurallib
(62,418 posts)Muscatine seems to be a large enclave 18th century minds.
madrchsod
(58,162 posts)a city no one really cares about other than driving through it if that absolutely have to
bullwinkle428
(20,629 posts)progressoid
(49,991 posts)Last edited Tue May 29, 2012, 11:14 AM - Edit history (1)
or neighbors.
pampango
(24,692 posts)the levers of power in a moderate state such as Iowa. Party platforms are often ignored in practice, but teabaggers have shown the ability in many states to get legislatures and governors to go along with their agenda.
shcrane71
(1,721 posts)These people are mean and diabolical. I have a cousin who was a total bully as kid, and she married a big time
Republican. At family gatherings, she likes to talk about her latest read which is usually some Ann Coulture rubbish. No one ever disagrees with her, because she's a bully. I have on occasion disagreed by saying such things as "Global warming is real, and agreed upon by over ninety percent of scientist." Her response, "I know. I can't believe I'm getting bullied by my own family." She's such a victim.
Oh and thank you Dubya Bush admin for faith-based funding. She was able to use those funds to take poor, inner-town kids from a small town in SW Iowa on a Canadian fishing trip (as well as all her kids and some friends, and their kids). Yep, your federal tax dollars hard at work.
Thav
(946 posts)Just can't wait. Most of my family will as well. All I need to do is get my grandparents to vote against him as well.
shcrane71
(1,721 posts)Mom isn't very political, but she finds it almost impossible to say his name with the the obligatory sh** tacked on. He's such an embarrassment to the entire state.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)You know, something diabolical in me almost wishes they could implement this insanity.
How far will the rest of Iowa and the US allow them to go until the social fabric unravels and rips into civil war?
efilon
(167 posts)It's just that like most of the country they have become crazier and more outspoken. Sad sad sad.
madrchsod
(58,162 posts)i have one of the speeches he gave and some of those very modern platforms are in the speech he gave. other platforms would have included by changing the language a bit.
he purchased the speech from a company from nebraska that sold speeches.
somethings never change do they...
LongTomH
(8,636 posts)...before they go to the polls? If people around the country are aware of the real GOP agenda when they vote these crazies into office, this country is even more fucked up than I thought it was!
Chipper Chat
(9,680 posts)and mailed to every houehold in Iowa 3 days before the election?
Maeve
(42,282 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)Dash87
(3,220 posts)is something from the 19th century.
bonniebgood
(943 posts)who changes their name every thirty years. first (to my knowledge) kkk, ALEC, and now known
as the Kochbaggers. They are not in the closet anymore, after the election a black President.
I am reminded about what a SC Senator said (when I Think President Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington, the first black to be invited to the White House). "now we have to kill 300 of them to let them know their place". We (USA) are headed toward a south Africa where a minority whites control 250 million people of color.
The Kochbaggers manifesto must be passed into law to let 250 million majority of their place.
allan01
(1,950 posts)1: fedearl law suppercedes state law. and when will the repugs realise that ONLY juries can pass scentance, NOT judges. and what about mittens ( bleh) backgorund ??? as one poster said "sad" i hope we get more of us elected to end this lunacy .in regards to the open letter ,, kick and in the guise of a former late nite talk show host i used to like listening to ,"oh really??, and how will this balance the iowa state budget , educate our kids, help our disabled and seiniors , and provide transportation. ever since an adult and reading history of this party , i have seen one constant thread, obstructionsiom and exclusion. meh. not one has never had any decent idears.
The Wizard
(12,545 posts)always fails in the end. But that won't stop Repubes from doing it.
libinnyandia
(1,374 posts)claiming that Obama was the worst president in history- higher unemployment than during the Depression rcord debt and my first recation was - is there a competition for who's the craziest reader or maybe he's applying for a job at Fox News. The GOP here is crazy but probably not any more so than in a lot of other states. I think that Obama will carry Iowa and I hope that we can get rid of Steve King.
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)Wouldn't the end of federal price supports and other programs mean a huge financial hit to Iowa's farmers, and thus indirectly to the state's entire economy?
The more common pattern for RW nuts is to oppose almost everything the federal government does, but to make an exception for any program that benefits them or their constituents. I think of Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana (which has no volcanoes), denouncing federal spending on volcano monitoring, but admitting that federal spending on studying the weather patterns in the Gulf of Mexico helped his state deal with Hurricane Katrina.
Instead of publicizing the whole list, I'd lean toward publicizing just the abolition of the Department of Agriculture, to make sure that plank doesn't get lost in the crowd.
ieoeja
(9,748 posts)Subsidies then were granted to *not* grow crops for environmental reasons and to artificially keep comodity prices high. The Reagan loving farmers figured that if the subsidies were eliminated, then they could plant "fence row to fence row" and thereby make more money.
Of course, accepting subsidies was optional. I knew one farmer who did not accept the subsidies and planted fence row to fence row. He benefited from the higher prices caused by everyone else taking the subsidies. And he, like them, lost out when those prices crashed after the subsidies were eliminated.
"You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the {earth}. You know... morons." - Blazing Saddles, 1974
sinkingfeeling
(51,457 posts)dickthegrouch
(3,174 posts)"Secede from the US"
That is the ultimate effect of all these goals. Then we can allow anyone who wants to leave back into the rest of the country and give Pastor what's his name a demonstration of his prison for criminals (gays and lesbians) idea.
LynneSin
(95,337 posts)These people aren't going to be happy until they have the country they want and honestly, most of us do not want to live in that place.
Woody Woodpecker
(562 posts)Far away enough, so uninhabitated, so perfect for Republicans to start as a cavemen and work their way up. No interference - Prime Directive.
Zalatix
(8,994 posts)"Time travel back 500 years"
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)And then we could declare war on them.
noamnety
(20,234 posts)I don't think of that one as a right wing concept - I've always thought of it mainly as a tool of the left, to get around the ridiculous sentencing requirements for possession of pot, or to dismiss charges like protesting. Here's a thread I posted a while back with more info on it: http://www.democraticunderground.com/100255042
I definitely have a problem with it being a legal option for jurors, but making it illegal to tell them it's an option.
LynneSin
(95,337 posts)seriously.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)Now they are firmly in control of one of the major political parties. This kind of crap would be amusing if they weren't deadly serious about it.
caseymoz
(5,763 posts)When you get all the conservative ideas down on one paper, you can see this party isn't fit to rule. I get the feeling that the John Birchers of the 1960s would think this platform is paranoid.
Zalatix
(8,994 posts)Just a FYI.
hfojvt
(37,573 posts)For example, I believe getting rid of the minimum wage has been on their platform since I lived there before 2001. I think I mentioned that in an LTTE. Getting rid of the income tax has been a bill in the House with 60 something Republican co-sponsors for at least four years, probably longer. (All I can find now is HR 25 (the UnFairTax Act creating a national sales tax of 23% to replace income and FICA taxes with 67 co-sponsors in the House)
But also, I do not consider "jury nullification" to be a "highly controversial notion".
cyberswede
(26,117 posts)In fact, the National Republican Platform is equally disturbing.
http://www.gop.com/2008Platform/
GoCubsGo
(32,085 posts)The SCGOP platform is at least as nutty and disturbing. About the only difference is that they have an extra plank in it that insists that the US Dept. of Energy dispose of all nuclear waste produced here on the Savannah River Site in somebody else's backyard. In other words, South Carolinians get to benefit from all the prosperity from all the billions in government money, but somebody else has to pay for the resulting garbage. Typical.
mercuryblues
(14,532 posts)Since when does Iowa border Mexico? They wouldn't be trying to tell other states how to spend their own money, would they?
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)Sirveri
(4,517 posts)Also it always pisses me off when they say that repealing the 16th would somehow make income taxes illegal. The SCOTUS ruled that income taxes were legal(since congress has the power to tax), and that the only thing that the 16th did was eliminate the need to spend the money evenly among the states.