Paulian Platform lessons for Denny and the Haig

As your humble inquisitor of all things parliamentary sat this morning in patient observation of the daily telegraph wires, a curious dispatch arrived from the hazy nether-regions beyond the Juan N. Seguin Memorial Interchange. From the available transcription it appears to have originated from two distinguished members of that great deliberative body at the titular helm of Benkiser, Inc.: the State Republican Executive Committee.


More specifically, the message contained a joint endorsement from Dennis Paul and Kathy Haigler, who apparently by virtue of their selection amidst their Republican Party of Texas convention delegate peers have gained entitlement to affix that courtly sobriquet of Justices of the Peace and Municipal Utility District Chairman alike before their names, to wit: the Honorable. By word of their bulletin, The Honorable Mr. Paul and The Honorable Ms. Haigler have decided to grace The Honorable Friendswood City Councilman Chris Peden with an equally Honorable endorsement.

The Honorable Dennis Paul, Houston, State Republican Executive Committeeman for SD11 says "I am happy to endorse Chris in this congressional race to provide the citizens of CD14 with true Republican leadership. Chris will gladly work for our platform and our Republican principles. I hope to be there on Jan 3rd, 2009 when we finally have a Republican sworn in to congress for CD14."

The final sentence is curious to the point that one might conclude Peden is running in a Democrat stronghold against a distinctly non-Republican opponent...but oh wait. He's running against Ron Paul, the revolutionary war reenactor turned congressman turned presidential upstart and verbiose thorn in the side of the Bush administration's driving quest to impose Pax Americana upon the bedraggled philistines of the world. The Honorable Haigler continues where the Honorable Paul (as in Denny, not Ron) left off:

The Honorable Kathy Haigler, Deer Park, TX, State Republican Executive Commiteewoman, SD11 says "Chris Peden is a principled Republican. For far too long CD14 Republicans have been denied the opportunity to be represented by someone who actually believes in and practices the Republican Party Platform, and now they have the opportunity to vote for a solid conservative who will go to Washington D.C. and vote Republican."

...the unmistakable theme, exhibited in simultaneity by both Honorable statements, being the 2006 Republican Party of Texas platform, coupled to the corollary imputation that Congressman Paul does not follow its suppositively sanctified guidance.

This interpreter is far from a partisan of the Honorable Dr. Paul (this time referring to the individual who serves in a real legislature, not the pretend one), but for sake of truthful commentary a word needs to be said of the ghastly 31-page dumpster for pet-issue declaratory rebukes appearing under the collective title of "Republican Party of Texas Platform." Minus its convention body-induced preambulatory panegyric to the secular deities of democracy that collectively form "the embodiment of the Conservative Dream in America"...and one nation under Joel Osteen of course...the decipherable portions of the Republican Party of Texas platform display the unmistakable bona-fides of a Ron Paulian document:

• Page 8: "We support state sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment"
• Page 8: "We urge that all bills presented in Congress include citations to the constitutional provision that authorizes Congress to act on the matter under consideration"
• Page 8: "We urge...[the] review and revision of those portions of the USA Patriot Act, and related executive and military orders and directives that erode constitutional rights and essential liberties of citizens."
• Page 8: "A perpetual state of national emergency allows unrestricted growth of government."
• Page 8: "We demand the elimination of presidential authority to issue executive orders, presidential decision directives, and other administrative mandates that do not have congressional approval."
• Page 17: "We support an orderly transition to a system of private pensions based on the concept of individual retirement accounts, and gradually phasing out the Social Security tax"
• Page 18: "We support market-based, private sector initiatives to improve the portability, quality and affordability of healthcare."
• Page 19: "We call for the abolition of the U. S. Department of Education and the prohibition of the transfer of any of its functions to any other federal agency."
• Page 21: "The Party calls on the Legislature and the Congress to repeal the “Brady Law” and all other laws under their jurisdiction that infringe on the right to bear arms and to reject any monitoring of gun ownership, excessive taxation or regulation of making and selling of guns and ammunition"
• Page 23: "We support the downsizing of the federal government in order to re-establish states’ rights guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. We further support the abolition of federal agencies involved in activities not delegated to the federal government under the original intent of the Constitution"
• Page 23: "We do not support governmental subsidies, tariffs, bailouts, or other forms of corporate welfare that are used to protect and preserve businesses or industries that have failed to remain relevant, competitive, and efficient over time."
• Page 24: "We urge that the IRS be abolished and the Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution be repealed."
• Page 26: "We urge the Homeland Security Department to...not violate the constitutional rights of the citizens of the United States"
• Page 27: "We support...disengagement from countries in which we have no clear national defense interest"
• Page 27: "We support...the military never being deployed except to defend against an invasion or in protection of the United States’ direct, vital interests"
• Page 27: "We support...expiration of the special emergency war powers of the executive branch unless renewed by Congress in 6 month intervals"
• Page 29: "Any government or entity that consistently votes against U.S. interests or is openly hostile to the U.S. shall not receive U.S. aid"
  
• Page 30: "We urge the repeal of any international trade agreements that do not promote free trade, withdrawal from membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO), and cessation of further negotiations of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement."
• Page 30: "We believe it is in the best interest of the citizens of the United States that we immediately rescind our membership in, as well as all financial and military contributions to, the United Nations"

In fairness, this same document does diverge with Ron Paul on the Iraq War (the platform supports the war) and on future strikes against Iran. But it also agrees with Ron Paul on abortion, taxes, immigration, trade, eminent domain, and dozens of other similar issues. In fact, one would be hard pressed to find a candidate in either party other than Ron Paul who supports any of the previously noted bullet points in full (or a return to the gold standard, which the Republican Party of Texas has also endorsed numerous times in the past).

Briefly overlooking the linguistic travesty that is the Republican platform in favor of its more sensible specifics, due notice should be givin to the self-annointed arbiters of that document - the Honorable Messrs. Haigler and Paul (again, the one in the fake legislative body) - that their positions of "platform enforcer" carry with them the prerequisite of having actually read and studied the document they pretend to use as the basis for their political endorsements.