An editorial at the NY Times takes a look at the draft GOP Platform going into the convention.
...The Republican Party has moved so far to the right that the extreme is now the mainstream. The mean-spirited and intolerant platform represents the face of Republican politics in 2012. And unless he makes changes, it is the current face of the shape-shifting Mitt Romney.
The uproar over Todd Akins and his circular logic about rape (If a woman becomes pregnant, it can't have been rape, so no abortion for her!) has drawn a lot of condemnation from Republicans. But, their real problem is not what Akin said, but that Akin said it out loud and on the record. Not one of them dares say there are any legitimate reasons for abortion, or that they'd vote for a bill with Akin's views in a second
if they thought they could get away with it. Akin's views are already in the platform.
In passages on abortion, the draft platform puts the party on the most extreme fringes of American opinion. It calls for a “human life amendment” and for legislation “to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.” That would erase any right women have to make decisions about their health and their bodies. There are no exceptions for victims of rape or incest, and such laws could threaten even birth control.
And if they can take the House, the Senate, and the White House
they will try to get away with it. Not to mention killing Obamacare, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and tax cuts to the max for the rich while they drain the middle class dry.
Which is why the Times editorial is frustrating - because this is the kind of thing that should be on the front page. Granted this is only a draft, but that this kind of stuff is even on the table in the 21st century shows how extremist the GOP has become. The entire rationale for Romney's campaign of distortions and outright lies about the President, his refusal to release details about anything he would do - all of this is because he dares not reveal the extremism of the modern GOP by actively campaigning on it. Or, that he dares not try to moderate it either. His choice of Ryan demonstrates that pretty conclusively.
The question is, if this kind of material stays in the back pages of the news, how can we expect Romney to ever be faced with a real debate about what he or the GOP stands for? How can we expect the press to do little more than recycle campaign talking points in an endless he said - he said fair and balanced mess of porridge?
The concluding line of the editorial has a rather understated observation:
Over all, it is farther out on the party’s fringe than Mr. Romney ventured in the primaries, when he repudiated a career’s worth of centrist views on issues like abortion and gay marriage. But the planks hew closely to the views of his running mate, Paul Ryan, and the powerful right-wing. Mr. Romney has a chance to move back in the direction of the center by amending this extremist platform. It will be interesting to see if he seizes it.
Interesting? I'd say F*&(#%Y$)%ing absolutely vital. Otherwise, we'll be left with media happy talk about the wonderful spectacle in Tampa and the challenge of the Democrats to match it, like it was a competing beauty pageant. There's real differences at stake here, and it's about time the main stream media woke up to the insane clown posse the GOP has become these last few years.