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Here are some items I was able to glean about the platform's positions:
1 - For a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage
2 - For a constitutional amendment to ban abortion
3 - For limiting stem cells to be used for research
4 - For private investment accounts as part of Social Security. This is part of the "ownership society."
5 - For temporary foreign worker program
6 - A lot of rhetoric about spreading "freedom" all over the world.
What's in the platform for us in the states? If you are gay, you are a second class citizen. If you are in the unlucky position that you need an abortion, you're a criminal if you go through with it. Of course, if you have money, you just go overseas and have it done.
If you have a loved one with Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, give up hope of a cure. If you are a scientist researching these diseases, maybe you need to move to a country that is freer in this respect.
If you are advancing in age and you have money, go for private investment accounts and join the "ownership society." Why not? You don't need the Social Security check to live. If you don't have much money, you still must take a chance and maybe lose a good portion of your old-age income.
If you are unemployed or you recently received a reduction in pay, I'm sure you will relish the idea of a foreign worker program that keeps wages down. And these workers do not even get a chance to become citizens.
The big idea of Bush is that he is fighting terrorism by making all countries free. You know, I want and I'm sure all of us want freedom everywhere. But if what Bush produced in Iraq is called "freedom," then I have no idea what the word means. If you want to spread freedom you talk to people, you have discussions, you exchange - you do not impose - ideas. You don't kill. You work together. You build a community.
I don't like these planks. But some people do. For those people I say, compare what the Republican Convention speakers say with the platform planks. Most of the speakers are so called "moderates." They do not represent Bush's positions. We know where Bush stands. He is strongly in favor of each of these platform planks.
