The essential read of historian Heather Cox Richardson revealed something astonishingly awful yesterday - the Platform of the Texas Republican Party. This reads like a Saturday Night Live skit mocking Republicans, but it is what these actual Republican politicians in Texas did. Per her "Letters From American":
"...delegates to a convention of the Texas Republican Party today approved platform planks
- rejecting “the certified results of the 2020 Presidential election, and [holding] that acting President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was not legitimately elected by the people of the United States” (the Big Lie to the end);
- requiring students “to learn about the dignity of the preborn human,” including that life begins at fertilization (the Evangelical minority rules);
- treating homosexuality as “an abnormal lifestyle choice” (what are they afraid of in themselves?);
- locking the number of Supreme Court justices at 9 (until they want to change it);
- getting rid of the constitutional power to levy income taxes (bankruptcy for all);
- abolishing the Federal Reserve (conspiracy forever);
- rejecting the Equal Rights Amendment (what could possibly be scarier than women with rights?);
- returning Christianity to schools and government (fuck the First Amendment)
- ending all gun safety measures (everyone thinks they're Clint Eastwood, but they are actually Fredo Corleone);
- abolishing the Department of Education (who needs to know anything?);
- arming teachers (have you ever seen grade school teachers?);
- requiring colleges to teach “free-market liberty principles” (you never heard of Business School, or MBAs?);
- defending capital punishment (front row seats and sell popcorn);
- dictating the ways in which the events at the Alamo are remembered (now their just making jokes);
- protecting Confederate monuments (does Germany have statues of Goering or Rommel?);
- ending gay marriage (they can't stop thinking about penises and assholes);
- withdrawing from the United Nations and the World Health Organization (nobody tells Bubba what to do, y'hear?);
- and calling for a vote “for the people of Texas to determine whether or not the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation (that could be a pretty good idea!).”
The problem with this is that it is not a SNL skit mocking Republicans. It is real Republicans being as serious as an AR15. At the heart of these platform planks are a couple of things - a twisted version of what it means to be a man (to be violent, dangerous, dominating, cruel) - and a twisted version of Christianity based on the twisted violent picture of a man which is so remarkably contrary to the actual life and teachings of the actual Jesus Christ.
Our country is in a very sad place, and tragically it is more than sad, it is dangerous.
