07 Jun 2004
Texas Republicans

This is an appalling little story on the Texas Republican Convention, including some details of the platform that emerged. Here's a sample of the goings-on:

Religious fervor got an early start Friday, when thousands of GOP delegates gathered at 7 a.m. in the main hall of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center for prayer and song.

Hands lifted, sometimes dropping to their knees, the delegates prayed for the nation, its troops and officials, including President Bush.

Beto Garza, a San Antonio doctor, was greeted with enthusiasm when he asked "that God is brought back into the school system." The Rev. C.L. Jackson of Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church, a prominent black pastor, also was received warmly when he mentioned his widely noted conversion to the GOP two years ago.

Pastor Charles Butchett of First Baptist Church in Kirbyville asked for militancy on the part of Christians, saying, "Give us Christians in America who are more wholehearted, more committed and more militant for you and your kingdom than any fanatical Islamic terrorists are for death and destruction. I want to be one of those Christians."

The Republican Party (and Texas is only the representative here: I'm sure that the Indiana platform will look much the same) has left the legacy of Lincoln, TR and Reagan, and has become a basketfull of religious wingnuts. Heathens, atheists and other free-thinkers beware: four more years of this and I'm sure that the President will claim the authority to burn witches: and to him, we're all witches!

Texas Republican delegates on Friday adopted an ultraconservative party platform that attacks a wide range of targets -- from taxes and homosexuality to abortion and the United Nations -- and gives a mixed review to Gov. Rick Perry's priorities.

(link) [Houston Chronicle] via tacitus and Andrew Sullivan

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