By David Cruz
Correspondent
In the aftermath of a Republican loss four years ago — with significant margins of defeat among minorities, women and independents — the party engaged in a bit of soul searching, promising to widen its appeal. But that was four long years ago, way before Donald Trump stormed through the party. The party platform that was approved this week makes the platform from 2012 look almost liberal by comparison.
A few key planks:
The party supports building a wall.
Bible study in public schools. And support for organizations that refuse service to gays on religious grounds.
Opposition to embryonic stem cell research.
Opposition to the idea of same-sex marriage.
And support for so-called gay conversion therapy.
Delegate John Traier is Passaic County GOP chairman and openly gay. He says his party is not where he would like it to be on issues of importance to him.
“We’re still disappointed with the language although, you know, probably for the, you know, evangelical right it probably isn’t strong enough language, but I think they tried to meet us a little bit and there were baby steps that were taken,” he said.
Among the New Jersey delegation this morning, there was reluctance to discuss the platform. It’s fairly well established that the Jersey delegation leans left, especially on social issues, and the platform, especially its most controversial planks, is not too popular here.
“I really don’t want to comment on those parts of the platform. I think if you want that comment you want talk to some of the platform members,” said New Jersey State Republican Committee Chairman Sam Raia.
Which we did last week in the person of platform committee member Sen. Joe Pennacchio, who spoke with NJTV’s Michael Aron.
“I don’t think that it is anti-gay. There is no homophobic issues on the platform committee. The conversion therapy, Michael, says that parents have the ultimate right to choose the type of treatment that the child gets or doesn’t get,” Pennacchio said.
“But conversion therapy been debunked. It’s not scientific,” Aron said.
“That may or may not be true but you’re interjecting yourself between a parent and the treatment that a parent may or may not choose for their child,” Pennacchio said.
“The platform is the platform. It’s not my Bible,” said Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick.
“New Jersey is a little bit more toward the middle of the road, but we have a large country so we have to somehow respect the beliefs and ideas of everyone throughout the whole country,” Raia said.
The platform doesn’t entirely reflect the philosophy of presumed nominee Donald Trump, who tends toward the center on social issues like same-sex marriage. One delegate said, “He got the wall and let the right fill in the rest.”
“When you look at our history, when they were drafting the Declaration of Independence, there was a section on slavery that Jefferson wrote that had to be removed in order to get consensus. In order to get consensus in any large group, there are going to be things that other people in the group do not agree with and that’s something that you have to cope with. It’s a reality of politics,” said Sen. Gerald Cardinale, a New Jersey delegate.
But, as a document of party philosophy, this platform will likely stand in sharp contrast to that of the other party. And It’ll be left to voters to decide if they believe everything they read.