Dueling (And Overly Wordy) Texas Political Platforms

Last month the Republican and Democratic parties in Texas held their state conventions -- and one of the things they did at those conventions was to finish writing and finalize their party platforms. And saying those platforms were a bit wordy is a gross understatement. The Republican platform droned on for about 40 pages, and not to be outdone, the Democrats wrote a platform that was 62 pages long.

I honestly don't know why the political parties do that. No one but a political junkie is going to even skim through a platform that long (and those political junkies already know who they support). No undecided voter is going to read a political tome of that size -- and even if they were inclined to do so, the parties could never afford to mail out to all voters those massive platform statements (and no newspaper has the space or TV station has the time to thoroughly examine those huge platforms).

It has always seemed to me that these platforms don't need to cover everything. They should just cover what the party thinks is most important for voters to consider in the upcoming election. Personally, I think a platform should just be a short mission statement and a series of bullet-points covering the most important party beliefs -- and should not be any longer than two pages (and one page, if it could be done, would be even better). A two-page platform could easily be mailed out to all voters (and many of them might even take the time to read something that short) -- and it could (and probably would) be thoroughly cover by the media.

I know that probably makes too much sense though, so we'll probably never see it in our lifetimes. Politicians, and the political junkies that support them, are far too fond of their words. So, I have tried to go through these 2014 party platforms, and pulled out what I consider the most important differences between the two major parties. Here are the "dueling ideas" in these platforms:

REPUBLICANS -- Oppose expanding Medicaid, and supports the full repeal of Obamacare.
DEMOCRATS -- Believe medical care is a right. They would not only support Medicaid expansion, but would support going to a full single-payer system covering all citizens.

REPUBLICANS -- Oppose the adoption of national education standards, and would support cutting additional funding for schools at all levels.
DEMOCRATS -- Support the adoption of rigorous national standards, and want to restore the school funding cut by Republicans in the last legislative session.

REPUBLICANS -- Want to prohibit undocumented immigrants from attending public schools.
DEMOCRATS -- Support providing a good education for all of the state's children.

REPUBLICANS -- Want to abolish both Social Security and Medicare.
DEMOCRATS -- Support maintaining the benefits provided by Social Security and Medicare, and opposes privatization of either program.

REPUBLICANS -- Supports abolishing the minimum wage.
DEMOCRATS -- Support raising the minimum wage and indexing it to the rate of inflation.

REPUBLICANS -- Support the reversal of Roe vs Wade.
DEMOCRATS -- Opposes all attempts to overturn Roe vs Wade, and wants women to have easy access to birth control.

REPUBLICANS -- Want to fully repeal the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 17th Amendment.
DEMOCRATS -- Support the right of all citizens to vote, and to choose the officials who represent them.

REPUBLICANS -- Want to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency.
DEMOCRATS -- Support the EPA, and it's new rules governing carbon dioxide emissions.

REPUBLICANS -- Support the use of "fracking" to produce more natural gas.
DEMOCRATS -- Oppose the use of "fracking", which endangers scarce water resources.

REPUBLICANS -- Support the use of racial profiling by law enforcement.
DEMOCRATS -- Oppose the use of racial profiling by law enforcement. 

REPUBLICANS -- Want to abolish all federal firearms restrictions.
DEMOCRATS -- Want to close the loopholes in the federal background check law for gun purchases.

REPUBLICANS -- Support the use of the death penalty.
DEMOCRATS -- Want to abolish the death penalty and replace it with life w/o parole.

REPUBLICANS -- Oppose legalizing same-sex marriages, and would deny federal courts the right to determine the constitutionality of same-sex marriage bans.
DEMOCRATS -- Support equal rights for all citizens, including the right to marry the person you love (regardless of gender).

REPUBLICANS -- Want to eliminate the separation of church and state.
DEMOCRATS -- Support the separation of church and state.

There are other differences in those documents, but I think that's enough to highlight the huge differences between the two state parties -- and to show why the Republicans need to be voted out of power (for the good of all the citizens of Texas).