‘Far right’ GOP Platform Pleases Conservatives

Written by Billy Davis and Steve Jordahl

A variety of advocates for conservative causes are watching closely as the Republican Party completes a draft of its official party platform.

Platform committee members met Monday and Tuesday in Cleveland to finalize the party’s stance on immigration, military readiness, and other issues that will be put before convention delegates for a final vote.

Many of the debated topics were hot-button social issues, including abortion and traditional marriage.

“Emerging Republican platform goes far to the right,” a headline at the reliably liberal New York Times declared earlier this week.

To many social conservatives, of course, that’s welcome news and not a warning of impending doom.

Watching the GOP deal with the issue of abortion, Operation Rescue spokesman Troy Newman says Republicans meeting in Cleveland have committed to more than just a “pro-life” party.

“But we’ve also decided to defund Planned Parenthood or any other organization that commits abortions,” he says of the GOP’s beliefs.

Democrats finalizing their platform have staked out an entirely opposite view, which is to demand that taxpayers’ dollars pay for abortions.

Israel and the U.S.

The draft platform has been amended to state that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital and removed a reference to “Palestine” that was included in the 2012 platform.

The draft also condemns the Boycott Divestment Sanction movement, which is intended to hurt Israel financially through trade barriers.

Trump recognizes the futility of pushing a so-called two-state solution, says Laurie Cardoza-Moore of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations.

“We can longer continue to force Israel to put a square peg in a round hole,” says Cardoza-Moore.

Trump understands that the threat Israel has faced “has been one that has been created by terrorists,” she adds.

Trump and ‘the wall’

Immigration watchdog Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, or ALIPAC, have watched Republicans include Donald Trump’s promise of a border wall in the Republican Party platform. It states a border wall should cover the entire southern border and be sufficient to stop vehicles and pedestrians from crossing into the U.S. at will.

Trump’s push for a border wall helped launch his presidential campaign early in the GOP primary at the same time headlines were describing a surge of illegals into the U.S. and liberal policies allowing them to remain.

William Gheen, president of ALIPAC, says a border wall should be just one part of a nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration. Those illegals should be barred from holding jobs and enjoying welfare benefits, he says. All of them should be deported, starting with convicted criminals who have committed violent crimes, he says.

If illegal immigrants are allowed to pour into the country, and allowed to stay, Gheen warns, then the issue of a border wall “will be just a speck on the map that school children talk about in the future, about how hateful Americans once tried to harm Hispanics.”

Addressing problem of porn

The platform has been ridiculed for addressing pornography but the issue can be linked to dissolved marriages, domestic violence, and rape.

Those problems relate to pornography because it distorts and twists people’s view of sexuality and sexual relationships, says Daniel Weiss with the Brushfires Foundation.

“It’s been a long time that our culture has just not come to terms with the destructive harms of pornography,” Weiss says.

“People are coming to grips with the fact that pornography harms the dignity of the human person,” says Terry Schilling of the American Principles Project.

Article originally published at OneNewsNow.com.