"Donald Trump's allies are quietly getting involved in little-noticed fights over who will serve on the committee to set the Republican Party's national platform," says NBC News.
While their point is focused on the official Republican position on abortion, NBC is dutifully claiming there is considerable disagreement within the GOP on abortion and other social issues.
Why are they publishing this? Are they trying to help the GOP sort things out ahead of time?
That would be a "No."
Are they just reporting the news like all journalists used to do? That, too, would be a "No."
Are they trying to foster division and dissension within the party they don't want to win the presidential election in November? That would most likely be a "Yes."
Be informed, not misled.
NBC News "informs" the enemy.
NBC News reported recently, "Donald Trump's allies are quietly getting involved in little-noticed fights over who will serve on the committee to set the Republican Party's national platform."
Continuing, they said, "NBC News spoke with nine people familiar with what's happening in states across the country, including Arizona, South Carolina, Kansas, and Iowa, among others, who said that the campaign's involvement is intended to stop those on the party's right flank from trying to push the official Republican National Committee platform too far to the right on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage headed into the general election."
How do they know this?
A Trump campaign official acknowledged to NBC News that there are conversations throughout the party about culture war-infused policies and that they have been watching and engaged in some state-level races for spots on the RNC's Platform Committee, which is the body that will play a significant role in shaping platform changes.
The current platform is a 66-page document that outlines the Republican National Committee’s position on dozens of issues, including abortion, marriage, police reform, the Federal Reserve, technology, and the environment.
"Now, some of the platform fights that could have played out in 2020 are spilling over into the 2024 election cycle," according to NBC.
“They are definitely worried about who is getting on those committees,” said Shiree Verdone, who served as co-chair of Trump’s campaign in Arizona in 2016 and 2020. “Trying to get normal folks on the platform and Rules [committees], but God knows if there’s any normal people in that delegation.”
The committee's staff leadership, which was picked earlier this month, are firmly Trump supporters.
Randy Evans, Trump’s former ambassador to Luxembourg, will serve as executive director; Russ Vought, Trump's former director of the Office of Management and Budget, will serve as policy director; and Ed Martin, the head of the conservative groups Phyllis Schlafly Eagles and the Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Center, will serve as deputy policy director.
NBC reminds their readers that "The former president has said he will roll back government programs backing transgender rights and punish doctors who provide gender-affirming care to minors. He frequently mocks trans athletes and has gone after schools for pushing 'transgender insanity.'"
“This moment feels so important, not just for this election, but really what it means for the future of our community,” Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson told NBC News. “We are seeing an incredible backlash in states across the country to the progress that we’ve made ... that’s led by an opposition that doesn’t want us to have the rights we have today.”
HRC is the largest homosexual advocacy organization in the country.
How should Christian, conservative Republicans respond?
Suzanne Bowdey, writing for American Family News, says, "Conservatives should be doing everything in their power to highlight the sharp contrasts between the GOP and the radical party of child mutilation, same-sex marriage, unborn baby dismemberment, and infanticide."
She notes, "While the media fans the flames of a full-blown attack on the Republican Party Platform, some new polling should give those moderates pause. In the eight years since the GOP drew up its last document (COVID derailed any 2020 revisions), conservatives haven’t abandoned their social values. If anything, they’ve become more adamant about protecting them."
I agree.
The numbers might be surprising, but in the last 20 years — as Democrats declared war on gender, girls’ sports, parental rights, marriage, and life — the percentage of GOPers who consider themselves “conservative” or “very conservative” on social issues jumped from 64% to 74%. That’s bad news for the party’s rebel flank, who hope to rip out key planks of the platform on abortion, marriage, and sexuality in July. As internal forces prep a siege on longtime principles, Gallup’s findings ought to stiffen the spines of any delegates tempted to water down what Republicans stand for.
Family Research Council Action Director Matt Carpenter sees the increase in social conservatives in the GOP as “significant.”
“It’s a rejection of the progressive ideology that has infected every institution in America,” he told The Washington Stand. “It tells me that there is a ceiling on just how far the Left can advance their cause among the American people. I think further evidence of this is the fact that Pride Month has been relatively muted this year compared to previous years. The novelty of much of the Left’s cultural agenda is wearing off and the pendulum is beginning to swing back.”
This idea that Republicans need to become more like Democrats to get elected is — and has always been — a ridiculous notion. Conservatives should be doing everything in their power to highlight the sharp contrasts between the GOP and the radical party of child mutilation, same-sex marriage, unborn baby dismemberment, and infanticide, Carpenter says.
As Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) warned when his colleagues sided with the president’s social extremism on a few occasions, “Republicans in office don’t help Republican candidates win elections by acting like Democrats. In fact, the opposite is true. Democrats make much better Democrats than weak-kneed Republicans. We will never beat them at their own game. Ever. Nor should we try.”
Bowdey notes, "While Republicans harden their positions on social issues, so have Democrats. Since 2004, the president’s party has become just as polarized in these culture wars — almost doubling the population of “social liberals” from 39% to 69% in the last two decades. The Left, on the other hand, doesn’t shy away from spelling out its positions in the party platform, even the overwhelmingly unpopular ones, like taxpayer-funded abortions and gender transitions, transgender access to restrooms, locker rooms, and showers, bans on sexual orientation change efforts, the end of conscience rights, biological boys in girls’ sports, sexual indoctrination in the classroom (without parental notification), and on and on.
Takeaway
To anyone who says these documents don’t matter, Ed Martin would say: you’re dead wrong. The president of Phyllis Schlafly Eagles joined Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on “Washington Watch” last week to call for prayer for what he considers the most important work of convention week.
“Words are very important,” he insisted, “And when you write it down in the platform, [for] the Republican Party, [these are] our principles. This is hopefully what we govern with — but it’s [also] who we stand for.”
Martin, who was just appointed by the Republican National Committee as a deputy director of the Platform Committee, says it’s more important than ever for social conservatives and Christians “to stand up and be counted.”
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Stand. Vote. Be Heard. Be Prayerful.
