On Wednesday night, the Republican National Committee voted to reuse its 2016 platform rather than building a new one for 2020.
The Washington Post reports: The move is notable because it means the party won’t change its official positions on issues such as same-sex marriage and will allow them to stand through 2024. But it’s also notable because some of the language in the platform decrying what the “current administration” and “the president” have done can just as easily be used against the current occupant of the White House. To be clear, the 2016 platform is not being repackaged as a new 2020 platform. But many of the things for which it attacked President Barack Obama and his administration carry parallels with the controversies of the first three-plus years of President Trump’s administration. And for the foreseeable future, they will remain the GOP’s stated goals.
More from the New York Times: The 2016 platform that is being renewed was the result of messy debates in Cleveland, the host city of the Republican convention four years ago, during which a group of renegade delegates tried but failed to strip out language opposing gay marriage and condoning conversation therapy for L.G.B.T.Q. youths. “We support the right of parents to determine the proper medical treatment and therapy for their minor children,” the platform reads. “We support the right of parents to consent to medical treatment for their minor children and urge enactment of legislation that would require parental consent for their daughter to be transported across state lines for abortion.” The platform made a steadfast case against same-sex marriage and called for a constitutional amendment overturning the 2015 Supreme Court decision that struck down laws defining marriage between one man and one woman. And it blames “the current President” for seeking to expand workplace protections to include L.G.B.T.Q. people.
