Image Credit: East Tennessee Freedom
Submitted by Danielle Goodrich [East Tennessee Freedom] –
The 2016 Republican platform contained the principles which made America great. We can’t make America great without the principles which made her great in the first place. Unfortunately, the 2024 Republican platform is missing many of these principles – the principles Republicans were tasked with upholding in order to preserve our Constitutional Republic.
A word analysis comparing the platforms shows an erosion of some principles and a complete absence of others.
-2016 mentions “inalienable rights” 10 times, 2024 zero
-2016 “God-given” 9 times, 2024 zero
-2016 “second amendment” 5 times, 2024 zero
-2016 “first amendment” 13 times, 2024 twice
-2016 “state sovereignty” 1 time vs zero
-2016 “abortion” 32 times, 2024 once
-2016 “liberty” 24 times, 2024 6 times
-2016 “10th amendment” 2 vs zero
-2016 “limited government” 3 times vs zero
-2016 “Creator” 4 times vs Creator zero
-2016 “Constitution, unconstitutional, constitutional” 79 times vs 2024 3 times -2016 “Declaration of Independence” 4 vs zero.
The Dems took God out of their platform over time. It looks to be a similar deletion of principle happening in the Republican platform.
There were a few inconsistencies in the 2016 platform carried over into 2024 which allowed for socialist thinking to creep in – Like school choice, which we now know per the Tennessee hearings, that it will bring the problems of public schools to the doorsteps of private without fixing public. It will involve the government in private and leave few options outside of government regulated education.
Advocates for vouchers say they need to add testing to retain the vouchers, which will mean if a voucher student doesn’t pass the test they lose their funding. Which will turn into the schools teaching to the tests and teaching the required curriculum which can include indoctrination. This is an equity platform. The “E” from DEI making this a socialist initiative. This is not a Republican solution. It’s school welfare. It’s school stamps.
It’s comparable to the government who is over the post office saying everyone deserves equitable delivery services, so they publicly fund FedEx and bring the same regulatory burden. Now FedEx looks just like the post office.
Doing what Ohio is doing and reforming education back to the founding principles is the answer. A tax credit maybe. But not this plan with government strings.
Overall the 2016 platform is excellent. It discusses all the principles needed to make America great again. These principles were all contained in the 2016 platform. Yet many are missing from the watered down, centrist 2024 platform.
The 2016 platform discussed:
-limited government
-the tenth amendment and state sovereignty and the need to return rights to the states and the 9th amendment returning rights to the people
-it recognized that the judiciary is the weakest branch of government, not supreme -that the Constitution is binding and inflexible, that it was created to limit the federal government – that the second amendment shall not be infringed
-that religious freedom includes the right of conscience
-medical freedom and parental rights which is mentioned in 2024 some
-not picking winners and losers by awarding credits to some while infringing on the free market -against cronyism
-standing against unelected unaccountable agencies and government which have stolen power -standing against unconstitutional treaties and UN authority
It’s all the things we push for as conservatives because we know these are the principles that ensure liberty. It’s a travesty to see how watered down the 2024 platform is comparatively. Much of what the 2016 platform says we are to be standing against is what TN Republican leadership is now doing.
The 2016 platform says we aren’t to pick “winners and losers” yet Tennessee did when they made an $884 million dollar investment in Ford’s electric car megasite and now Tennessee Governor Lee is accepting federal funds to implement Biden’s radical climate plan. The 2024 platform says we must reject this climate plan yet Tennessee leadership accepted it because they picked EV to be the winner when they invested in EV.
The 2024 platform has nothing like the “Rebirth of the Constitutional Government” section from 2016 which mentions, “God-given, natural rights; inalienable rights, Constitution’s fundamental principles: limited government, separation of powers, individual liberty, and the rule of law.” It mentions, “In a free society, the primary role of government is to protect the God-given, inalienable rights of its citizens. These constitutional rights are not negotiable for any American. We affirm that all legislation, regulation, and official actions must conform to the Constitution’s original meaning as understood at the time the language was adopted.”
It says, “We believe in the constitutional checks and balances and that the Founders intended the judiciary to be the weakest branch. Congress has delegated increasing amounts of legislative authority to executive departments, agencies, and commissions, laying the foundation for today’s vast administrative state. Unelected bureaucrats in the executive branch now write countless rules with the force of law and arbitrarily punish individuals who disobey those rules. The Constitution makes clear that these powers were granted to Congress by the people and must therefore remain solely with the people’s elected representatives. We call on Congress to begin reclaiming its constitutional powers from the bureaucratic state by requiring that major new federal regulations be approved by Congress before they can take effect.”
It mentions, “The First Amendment: Constitutionally Protected Speech, The Second Amendment: Our Right to Keep and Bear Arms, The Fourth Amendment: Liberty and Privacy, The Fifth Amendment: Protecting Human Life.”
“The Constitution’s guarantee that no one can “be deprived of life, liberty or property” deliberately echoes the Declaration of Independence’s proclamation that “all” are “endowed by their Creator” with the inalienable right to life. Accordingly, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth.”
Which was replaced with abortion was given to the states in the 2024 platform and Republicans will now focus on late-term abortion.
2016 also says, “The Fifth Amendment: Protecting Private Property. The Fifth Amendment: Intellectual Property Rights. The Ninth Amendment: The People’s Retained Rights. The Tenth Amendment: Federalism as the Foundation of Personal Liberty.”
None of these foundational principles are found in the 2024 platform.
And 2016 said, “Traditional marriage and family, based on marriage between one man and one woman, is the foundation for a free society and has for millennia been entrusted with rearing children and instilling cultural values.”
2024 says “empower families. Says sanctity of marriage” but doesn’t define marriage as being between a man and a woman.
If we are to hand down liberty for our children to do the same, we must hold our ground on principles which ensure God-given rights. Not remove them and move towards the center as the left slides into communism.
Jeff Cobble, Constitutional attorney, says Republicans and Democrats are on the same road (to socialism) just Democrats are in the fast lane. It is the job of Conservatives to hold the line on liberty by holding the line on principles which ensure it.
Can we speak with our local GOP (the CEC) and the state SEC and come up with a state Republican platform that understands the necessity of state sovereignty?
We can’t keep looking to a King or the federal government to fix these issues, because that means they are powerful enough to break it. We ensure they can’t break it by decentralizing authority. Centralized authority is absolute authority which corrupts absolutely.
The founding fathers had just escaped a King and did not want the federal government becoming the King they escaped. Yet, here we are with a too powerful Fed and a lot of unconstitutional authority that needs to be checked. We must flex the 9th and 10th as the 2016 platform instructs and put the federal government back in its limited place. Or we will be right back here every four years, but losing ground a little more each time.
2024 Republican Party Platform
2016 Republican Party Platform
