I finally got around to taking a look at this year’s Texas GOP’s party platform. I couldn’t finish it, as it struck me not as a coherent document – and, to be honest, I’ve never read one of these before, so perhaps coherence isn’t a virtue in these things – so much as a litany of personal grievances, dressed up in lawyer language and never really discussed. For example, Section 46:
46. Energy Production: We support free–market solutions and immediate removal of government barriers and direct subsidies to the production, transportation, reformulation, refining, and distribution of energy. We oppose federally directed plans and proposals that favor renewable energy sources that may constitute a nuisance, or otherwise have a substantially negative impact on neighboring landowners, including harming property values of our neighborhoods, farms, and ranch areas.
I can’t help but notice how they ignore the dangers in such installations. Government direction of just such regulations keep farms and ranches safe. Or, despite their advocacy of unfettered free market principles, is Section 72.
72. Personal Data Privacy: We demand that all rights to privacy that individuals have in their homes should be extended to all digital data via the use of strong public key encryption technologies. We call upon Texas to prohibit vendors of the State of Texas and its subdivisions from selling or sharing data captured in providing services to Texans. We support laws limiting the ways in which internet providers, electronic applications, websites, schools, government entities, and others may access the electronic communications or documents of all Texans.
Since I don’t have a benchmark, it’s hard to render a really fair judgment. But I just have to say this just strikes me as something a bunch of fourth-raters would put out. In particular, I noticed that the word fetus was verboten, in favor of the ridiculous pre-born human. With no mention of the woman’s health or desires; she’s apparently just a baby crib with legs rather than wheels.
But they yelled at Senators Cornyn (R-TX) and Cruz (R-TX), so that’s a point in their favor.
