No GOP Platform: Kushner and Stepien got their way.

By Rubashov  

The Republican Party Platform – the platform that grew out of the Reagan movement – died today.  It has ceased to exist.  It is no more.

Conservatives saw this coming.  Over the Memorial Day weekend, John Robert Carman posted a story from the website Axios, regarding “secret talks to overhaul the GOP platform.”  The Axios article – which was picked up by a number of national publications – details the efforts of Jared Kushner and Bill Stepien in minimalizing the Republican Party platform from its current 58 pages down to a one page document with ten bullet-points.  

According to those present at the on-going meetings held “in the Secretary of War Suite in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the West Wing of the White House”, Kushner wants words like “freedom” removed from the platform, as well as statements of principle like: “We support the right of parents to determine the proper medical treatment and therapy for their minor children.”

You can read the full Axios story here:
https://www.axios.com/republican-platform-jared-kushner-56cb19ee-d6c7-409e-93e5-088eebd82825.html

Jared Kushner is the President’s son-in-law.  Bill Stepien is his campaign manager.  Various apologists have argued that Kushner and Stepien are simply attempting to “dumb down” the platform to “make it more relevant” to people accustomed to social media like Twitter.  Maybe, or perhaps something else is going on.
 
Jared Kushner has not been a registered Republican for very long.  The scion of a wealthy Democrat family, his father was the fundraising muscle behind Democrat Governor Jim McGreevey.  He got caught up in the corruption and went to prison.
 
Kushner wasn’t a registered Republican when his father-in-law was on the ballot in the primaries and General Election of 2016.  He became a registered Republican only in 2018.  Before that, he was a major fundraiser for the Democrat Party and promoted the candidacies of some very socially liberal Democrats. 

Bill Stepien owes his political redemption to Kushner, who assisted him after the Bridgegate scandal in which he was dismissed by Governor Chris Christie.  He is a talented political operative. 
 
Stepien is not a movement Republican, or movement conservative, or movement anything.  He is singular in his focus – and that focus is always on the candidate who employs him.  When he worked for Governor Christie, the NJGOP steadfastly refused to support the platform of the Republican Party.  The argument put forward was that having ideas on paper and committing to them got in the way of the politics of power.  One wonders what America would be like if gentlemen like these had written – or rather, not written – the Constitution and Bill of Rights. 
 
Of course, this had its downside.  The 2013 re-election campaign Stepien ran for Governor Christie was successful, but that 20-point win did not result in a movement victory.  The Republican Party did not gain ground in the Legislature.  The victory was singular, contained, it went no further than the top-of-the-ticket.
 
Stepien’s method of campaigning runs like this:  We did a poll. The voters say they like cheesecake.   Our donors are not adverse to cheesecake, so we can safely say we like cheesecake.  It was summed up very well earlier this year, by a former executive director of the NJGOP, who rejected the idea of arguing for the Second Amendment and who found it “ridiculous” to fashion language and arguments with which to defend this Constitutional right. 
 
So now the Republican platform is simply a man.  Where once there were ideas, now there is a photograph that may be conveniently pointed to.  Kushner and Stepien have won.  They got their way.  Now here is the full sum of what you need to know about the Republican Party in 2020…

Here is the full edict, released today, announcing the demise of the Republican Party Platform.  You can judge for yourselves as to the tone and the excuses made.  Does it sound as authoritarian to you, as it does to us?  A sadden day.  
 
  RESOLUTION REGARDING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY PLATFORM

  WHEREAS, The Republican National Committee (RNC) has significantly scaled back the size and scope of the 2020 Republican National Convention in Charlotte due to strict restrictions on gatherings and meetings, and out of concern for the safety of convention attendees and our hosts;
 
WHEREAS, The RNC has unanimously voted to forego the Convention Committee on Platform, in appreciation of the fact that it did not want a small contingent of delegates formulating a new platform without the breadth of perspectives within the ever-growing Republican movement;
 
WHEREAS, All platforms are snapshots of the historical contexts in which they are born, and parties abide by their policy priorities, rather than their political rhetoric;
 
WHEREAS, The RNC, had the Platform Committee been able to convene in 2020, would have undoubtedly unanimously agreed to reassert the Party’s strong support for President Donald Trump and his Administration;
 
WHEREAS, The media has outrageously misrepresented the implications of the RNC not adopting a new platform in 2020 and continues to engage in misleading advocacy for the failed policies of the Obama-Biden Administration, rather than providing the public with unbiased reporting of facts; and
 
WHEREAS, The RNC enthusiastically supports President Trump and continues to reject the policy positions of the Obama-Biden Administration, as well as those espoused by the Democratic National Committee today; therefore, be it
 
RESOLVED, That the Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda; RESOVLVED, That the 2020 Republican National Convention will adjourn without adopting a new platform until the 2024 Republican National Convention;
 
RESOLVED, That the 2020 Republican National Convention calls on the media to engage in accurate and unbiased reporting, especially as it relates to the strong support of the RNC for President Trump and his Administration; and
 
RESOLVED, That any motion to amend the 2016 Platform or to adopt a new platform, including any motion to suspend the procedures that will allow doing so, will be ruled out of order.
 

"Every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered...History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right."

George Orwell
(Eric Arthur Blair)

Lonegan: GOPers who push "moderation" while cutting deals with Dems are an existential threat to our party.

An important and timely message from the father of New Jersey's conservative movement:

Fellow Republicans,

You all know me.

No matter what you think of me, you all know where I stand on the issues. Some of you might accuse me of being too unwavering, unwilling to compromise, but nobody has ever doubted where I'm coming from.

As we watch the Christie era in the rear-view mirror, we need to decide on what kind of party we intend to be. We need to chart a course for the road ahead.

That's very easy for someone like me. The course is free market conservatism, defending freedom at home, and our interests abroad. It is the message of our Republican Party Platform. Simple enough. If you call yourself a Republican, you should value Republican principles.

Unfortunately, that is not who is leading the Republican Party in Bergen County these days. There are too many who look to cut deals with the Democrats -- and not for idealistic policy aims -- but for their personal benefit. Their vision of the Republican Party is a defeatist one, where they seek to benefit from the crumbs swept from the Democrat table. The policies they advocate consist of slavishly mimicking a watered down version of the Democrats' own post-Western, post-Christian, anti-Freedom agenda.

You've probably heard it around the county, and around the state, that a conservative cannot win -- anything. The fact is that the only Republican to win statewide office in over twenty years was both Pro-Life and Pro-Second Amendment. The fact is that those Republicans who get the most votes in New Jersey are consistently the most conservative. The liberal wannabe Republicans can't turnout their base and those they want to convince have someone better to vote for -- a Democrat.

This "moderate" nonsense is like a religion with some of our so-called "leaders" -- those who practice the Janus-faced religion of being all things to all voters. Even though every study and every poll shows that they will not convince a Democrat to vote Republican in this starkly divisive climate, they hold true to the faith that turning-off a dozen conservatives is worth every liberal vote they pick-up.

The way forward is clear for 2018: Maximum Republican and conservative turnout. A full effort.

Of course, there are some within our party who are working against this. Some who are personally enmeshed with the Democrats. It's happening in other parts of the state as well. Democrats are playing in our primary. In every congressional battleground in the state, there is a former Democrat running as a Republican or a liberal Republican with Democrat-ties claiming to be a conservative. Every one.

They are there for one reason: To make us spend money so we won't have it to hit the Democrats in the General Election. Here in Bergen County, I am facing an opponent who was described by the Bergen Record as the "right hand man" to Democrat Sheriff Michael Saudino. Let's not forget that it was Saudino's feud with the Republican County Executive that lost us control of our county. Saudino, followed that up by joining Hillary Clinton and Josh Gottheimer on a ticket that crushed the BCRO. Through it all, my opponent remained employed by Sheriff Saudino, as his trusted consigliore, and actually started his campaign while still on the Democrat's payroll.

Now we all know where Sheriff Saudino stands on this election. He's backing fellow Democrat Josh Gottheimer for re-election this year. So are Mayors Harry Shortway of Vernon and Harry Shortway of Midland Park. They held an event for my opponent at their family bar in Passaic County. Did you follow that? They are endorsing Democrat Josh Gottheimer in the General Election but held an event to help my opponent in the Republican primary. Meanwhile, in a neighboring district, the insider-backed "Republican" candidate wouldn't tell a room full of Republicans how he voted for President in 2008 (Obama vs. McCain), 2012 (Obama vs. Romney), or 2016 (Clinton vs. Trump). And like my opponent, this fellow seems to be allergic to voting in a Republican primary.

Our party faces an existential threat from those who cut deals with Democrats and then preach the religion of "moderation" while pushing fake Republican candidates on us. We must resist them, whether they are well-meaning and stupid or slick and treacherous. It is time to use the Republican Party Platform and our conservative principles as the measure by which we judge our candidates. If some of our so-called "leaders" don't like that platform or our principles, they are free to leave the party and start their own. I, for one, am sick and tired of being dictated to by a small group of professional political "leaders" who are totally out of touch with the thoughts and views of most Republicans. It is time for them to go.

A party that knows what it is about, is a party that can convince people to get involved, contribute, and win. This holds true up and down our ticket. The message of lower taxes, less government, and individual freedom is a winning one. The Democrats' warmed-over socialism, leavened with coarse identity politics has, in the end, always lost.

Thank you for your time and I hope I will have your support to secure our primary in June and defeat the Democrats in November. If you have any insights you would like to share with me, please feel free to send me an email at steve@lonegan.com.

Thank you,
Steve Lonegan