Party platform reading is never fun. They are long. They tend to be tedious. All the same, it’s important to read them. In November, when one party’s candidate takes the required number of electoral votes and wins the presidency, it isn’t just that person American voters are voting into power. It’s also that person’s party platform, a document all party members, elected or not, are expected to adhere to, fight for, and promote, whether they personally believe these things or not. Therefore, anyone who cares what direction their government will be taking in the future should at least give them at least a cursory look.

Today, I am reading the Republican Party Platform (pdf), and will point out things that annoy me as I run across them.

Most of the things they are complaining about and believe should be changed are, in fact, things the Republicans could have very well changed at any time when they were in power. The Budget Act of 1974 is an excellent example. They don’t like it. They want to change it. Well, why haven’t they done so at some point since 1974? It appears they would have me believe that at no time since then their party hasn’t had the power or the votes to do so. They have, and they simply chose not to bother. Until now, of course.

They are also in favor of adopting the Balanced Budget Amendment. Hey, me too! Alas, they have an added caveat to their support of having a balance budget: “except in time of war.” That caveat wouldn’t mean much, if we were at war right now and expecting to be at war somewhere with someone for quite a while to come. Therefore, their support of the Balanced Budget Amendment is just so much lip-service.

Then there’s a statement that confused me.

Additionally, as important as returning power to the states is returning power to the people. As the Declaration of Independence states, our rights are endowed to us by our Creator and are inalienable: rights to life, liberty, and property.

I have more than a passing familiarity with American history and historical documents. The Declaration of Independence does not mention property. “Life, liberty, and property” appears in the Declaration of Colonial Rights, a document that predated the Declaration of Independence. When the Declaration of Independence was written, “property” was changed to “pursuit of happiness” for reasons perhaps only Jefferson knows, though it has been thought it was to broaden the scope of our inalienable rights. Anyway, misquoting the Declaration of Independence is, in fact, ignorant — about as ignorant as thinking the founding fathers had anything to do with the Pledge of Allegiance.

The job of modernizing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid calls for bipartisanship, not political posturing. Through the last four presidential terms, we have sought that cooperation, but it has not been forthcoming.

How is it the Republican Party can have control of both the House and the Senate, as well as the Presidency, and they still can’t do what Bush said they were going to do when he first got into office? I am not at all for any of the changes to these programs Bush set out to changed, but I fail to see why they failed to get this accomplished when they had full control of everything. I know they’d like us to forget they were ever in control of two branches of the government, but they were.

And that brings me to page 79 of 120. There are a few more things from the first 79 pages I want to mention, but they tie in with things mentioned further on in the document, so I’ll save them for later. Also, I’m not posting everything. Not even close. These are just the things that inspired me enough to type them out. I encourage everyone who plans to vote in November to read both party platforms for themselves and draw their own conclusions.

Enough reading for now. I want to go peel my husband’s butt off the couch and go do something fun. He’s been glued to the TV news this whole time, and he needs to do something other than listen to talking heads all day. I’m going to try to finish the Republican Party Platform later today, so I can get to the Democratic one tomorrow, but no guarantees on that. I might end up having too much fun this afternoon, which would be a good thing. Too much politics can rot the brain anyway.