Texas has generally set the gold standard for looniness but Iowa has recently leapfrogged them. The platform has 387 separate planks and principles ranging from the paranoid to the ridiculous to the obvious as well bouts of surprising sanity that the GOP will never actually adopt.
The most startling platform is for “the reintroduction and ratification of the original 13th Amendment.” that failed to pass in 1810. The Amendment was introduced in 1865 and prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude. No, they don't want to reintroduce slavery but they do want to use the original version to deny Obama his citizenship. It has nothing to do with the Birther movement either. The original Amendment stated:
“if any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive or retain any title of nobility or honor” from a “foreign power, such person shall cease to be a citizen” and “shall be incapable of holding any office of trust.”
They believe that in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize Obama would have violated this original Amendment. I imagine they would have to then also believe that any Americans winning the Nobel Prize for any of the sciences or writing would also thus lose their citizenship. The Department of Justice did look into whether Obama would need Congressional approval to receive the prize based on an existing emoluments clause but ruled that the Nobel Committee is not a "foreign power".
They also want to eliminate the Departments of Education and Agriculture and the IRS. The platform also calls for the elimination of the minimum wage and of OSHA. They must like the idea of the sweatshops and factory conditions of a time long since passed.
Then there is the paranoid. They oppose the imposition of Sharia Law. So do I, and I also appose the idea that all Americans be forced to become Idol worshipers and I'm not talking about film or rock idols. This is as likely as the adoption of Sharia Law. There seems to be some fairly pervasive idea among Tea Partiers that having a President whose middle name is Hussein is one step away from the imposition Sharia Law.
They oppose the North America Union which allegedly will eliminate our borders and sovereignty as well as the Amero which will do away with out currency. I've never even heard of either of these. They also oppose a "World Government" which is about as likely as Sharia Law becoming the law of the land.
Another part of the platform reads:
We oppose the restoration of the “Fairness Doctrine” by congress, the FCC, or the courts, which is nothing more than a pretext to silence conservative radio talk shows
The Fairness Doctrine was introduced in 1949 to force broadcasters to present both sides of controversial issues but was removed in 1981. The current meme among the right is that the Obama administration want to reintroduce it to silence conservative talk radio. There hasn't even been the slightest hint that they have even considered it but that doesn't bother the right from turning it into a rallying cry.
Activist judges should all be impeached. They obviously haven't considered that this could include all the conservative judges on the Supreme Court who ruled in favor of unlimited corporate campaign donations, overturning all settled law.
I do, however, like the second principle. All it says is "America is Good." You can't get any clearer and simpler than that. Then there is the sane principle that all farm subsidies should be eliminated. I have always agreed with that one although hell will freeze over before the GOP even considers that. One of the platforms deals with the definition of manure. You can make up your own definition for that one. It isn't bullshit although it should be.
Then there is the sane principle that all farm subsidies should be eliminated. I have always agreed with that one although hell will freeze over before either party even considers that one.
All in all, it's an entertaining though scary read through the minds of the far right in America today.
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