GOP Platform: No Dissent Tolerated

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Earlier this month I filed a report on former U.S. president Donald Trump‘s successful bid to reshape the Republican party platform on the issue of abortion. For those of you who missed it, Trump engineered a policy shift which removed the party’s erstwhile unequivocal contention that “the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed.”

That’s no longer the case, it would appear …

Trump’s GOP now objects only to “late-term abortion,” per the new platform.

Look, I get it. Abortion is the stickiest of all political issues. It’s so hot-button, in fact, there are those who believe I am disqualified from even holding an opinion on it by virtue of the fact I have a penis (although perhaps if I identified as someone who didn’t have a penis I might be allowed to hold a view).

Anyway …

I am pro-life. Always have been. But my media outlet respects those with different views – and I have made it my mission to share those perspectives with my audience and to cover the issue as objectively as possible.

Hence, I acknowledged in my coverage the “political utility of Trump’s retreat” on the issue.

My job is to report the news, offer analysis of it and (most importantly) host a conversation – one which, incidentally, is open to everyone (especially people who think I’m full of it).

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Unfortunately for the GOP, such an open exchange of ideas did not take place at the GOP Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin earlier this month. In fact, the opposite occurred.

Our coverage alluded to the fact many GOP stalwarts were “miffed by the process which led to the sudden policy shift.”

“The document — which was whittled down from 66 pages in 2016 to 16 pages this year — was developed behind closed doors and hastily presented to and approved by delegates in just a few hours Monday morning,” Megan Messerly and Irie Sentner reported for Politico at the time.

According to Messerly and Sentner, one GOP delegate told them party leaders “didn’t even give us a chance to read it before we voted on it.”

The GOP’s censorship of its pro-life wing received more expansive discussion in a column published last week by conservative author Jonathon Van Maren.

According to Van Maren, one pro-life delegate who spoke with him – Gayle Ruzicka of the conservative Eagle Forum organization – accused GOP leaders at the convention, including U.S. senator Marsha Blackburn, of shutting down debate on the abortion issue in Milwaukee.

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“No discussion, no amendments,” Ruzicka told Van Maren, referring to a rushed meeting of the party’s platform committee the week before the gathering. “It was shocking. Absolutely shocking. We tried to protest, but they wouldn’t let us. They wouldn’t even let us to the microphones. A few people got to the microphones on other issues and said they wanted to propose amendments, but they said that they weren’t taking amendments – (and) that if you wanted an amendment, you could put it in writing. Of course, we were already voting, so it didn’t do any good.”

Ruzicka said an attempt to make the abortion policy shift subject to a roll call vote – i.e. a vote compelling each delegate to go on the record regarding the policy shift – was also shot down.

“Blackburn was running the committee, and she was telling people they couldn’t speak,” Ruzicka told Van Maren. “We had no input into the platform whatsoever.”

Ruzicka went on to say none of the delegates could do anything to publicize what was happening because their phones had been taken from them during the meeting.

“Ruzicka’s watch was taken, as well,” Van Maren reported.

Also, GOP officials allegedly manipulated seating assignments to ensure dissenters couldn’t huddle during the proceedings.

“It was clear that they knew ahead of time how people would vote because of the way they seated us,” she said. “We weren’t seated together so we couldn’t talk.”

“It was unbelievable,” Ruzicka added.

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Again: This isn’t about abortion. Well, technically it is … but ultimately, it isn’t.

What’s it about, then? It’s about having faith in a free and open debate – which is supposed to be a hallmark of our “Republican” government. Similarly, it’s about people – especially those in leadership roles – having the courage of their convictions. Irrespective of your view on the issue of life, the GOP’s actions – while successfully accomplishing Trump’s objective – failed miserably on both of these key fronts.

As for having faith in open debate, I’m fond of saying one of two things is likely to happen whenever I hand my microphone off to someone who disagrees with me – either I’m going to look dumb or they are. Perhaps a better way of saying it is this: “Either I’m going to learn something I didn’t know before – and emerge with a fuller or different perspective on an issue – or I’m not.”

Either way, I can’t lose.

We only lose as a society when we are afraid to allow different perspectives to be heard. Or worse, when we censor these perspectives (as the GOP clearly did in Milwaukee).

As for the courage of convictions, this one is also simple: Whatever you believe on the issue of abortion – or on any other issue – have the courage to stand for your beliefs publicly. Don’t resort to procedural gimmicks as a means of avoiding a difficult public vote. That is cowardice – not to mention prima facie evidence you don’t believe what you say you do.

National Republicans may have done the politically intelligent thing by striking this anti-abortion language from their platform – that remains to be seen. But the way they achieved this objective demonstrated a disturbing contempt for free expression – and displayed a cowardly refusal to take a principled stand one way or the other.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks is the owner and founding editor of FITSNews. Prior to founding his own news outlet, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina, bass guitarist in an alternative rock band and bouncer at a Columbia, S.C. dive bar. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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