Posted by hank, Wed Jan 09 23:47:00 UTC 2008
I was reading the Republican Party platform of 1860 today, which is about 1.5 pages, very broadly worded, and actually has good general platform aims. It was an interesting contrast to the 2004 platform, which is very specific and verbose and specific about every possible issue, 92 pages, and full of praise for George W. Bush. The old platform is much less superficial - it actually lays down the underlying principles that the party aims to achieve, some of which have been ignored by later platforms, the following being particularly powerful:
That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of powers on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depends; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.
So, why has the party changed so much? Maybe the 2008 platform should be minimal, only stating the underlying principles behind the individual policies in the 2004 platform. Any intelligent person should be able to conclude from the minimal set of principles what the party’s policy would be on a particular issue. The 1860 platform seemed to recognize this.
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