Do you take anything in this document seriously?
Only to the extent that it will come up during campaigns.
This is basically a “repeat these lines in your campaign stops” document for Republican candidates. It’s also more a list of grievances more than it is a plan to move forward.
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Or in other words its a document designed to appeal to idiots. From the Wikipedia page on the Contract with America:
Non-implementation[edit]
A November 13, 2000, article by Edward H. Crane, president of the libertarian Cato Institute, stated, “the combined budgets of the 95 major programs that the Contract with America promised to eliminate have increased by 13%.”
Couldn’t they at least find an American kid to promote their nonsense.
McCarthy rep quote from the article: “Interesting how you guys aren’t remotely interested on the issues facing the American people in the video.”
I’m cynical enough to think that they intentionally put the Russian footage in there (at least 3 independent clips by the same videographer?) so it would be “found” (or actually pointed out to the Huffington Post) just so that McCarthy’s rep could use that quote and McCarthy and others could continue to use it in campaigns.
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Just for fun, I looked through it to identify the specific agenda items they might try to act on, rather than the platitudes about how the government is going to create a strong and beautiful economy with more high paying jobs and healthy citizens.
“Support 200,000 more police officers through recruiting bonuses”. Is the Federal government going to fund recruiting bonuses here for local police? Maybe. Or does “support” just mean waving back the blue flags while trying to defund the FBI?
“End catch-and-release loopholes” This is not very specific, so hard to say what they truly plan to do. Are they going to ban seeking asylum?
" expand parental choice so over a million more students…" A welfare program for middle and upper class constituents via school vouchers. A massive federal mandate on the states for welfare for the higher income brackets is definitely in their wheelhouse.
" protect the lives of unborn children" GOP moved really quickly from “let the states decide” to we need to ban medical procedures everywhere that the religious don’t like, and especially ban those done to protect the live and health of the mother when the fetus is not viable. Sort of surprised ban contraceptives wasn’t included here.
“repealing proxy voting” pretty actionable. They might pull this off. I’m fine with this. I think it was a necessary and prudent measure during COVID, but its no longer necessary IMO.
“Defend fairness by ensuring that only women can compete in women’s sports”. Yeah, I can see them trying to mandate a genital inspection of all students before every sporting event. Gaetz will personally oversee the implementation if approved.
Did I miss anything that isn’t a platitude?
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Somewhere I saw it pointed out that the only real “plans” they have is for the items where they get to limit rights (voting, trans, abortion, etc)
That won’t be the implementation, but they are likely to try to make policies such as FINA’s the law of the land.
I mean, possibly they don’t think Fina went far enough, but I suspect they’d settle for something along these lines. Probably not very many trans-women will meet FINA’s strict requirement.
Well it’s nice the Republicans finally published a new contract on America instead is saying “yeah whatever Trump wants is cool”.
That said I disagree with much of the platform and the parts I do agree on seem to be rather thin on actual details. I suspect when those details are eventually released they will be the devil in the details.
Actually 100% I’ll give you this, there are a few points in here. At least it’s pointing out some solid problems, which is better than most R candidates lately.
I poked through about 50% of it without bothering with the YouTube videos.
Basically amounts to, “liberal bad”. I actually LOL’d at the government stimulus payout complaint given Trump’s insistence on having his signature on it which delayed payments during COVID.
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Graham is already looking for a blanket ban after 15 weeks. The R candidate for MI governor is against all abortion including rape, incest, and life of the mother. She thinks a 14-year-old should carry the baby because the baby might help identify a rapist.
A major Contradiction in the “A Future That’s Built on Freedom” section. GOP, please change the title of this section to “Freedom For Us, Not For You.”
Yeah, that was one of my first thoughts - Freedom to not be able to choose?
Freedom to be a fascist and to do fascist things to others.
Freedom to project your religious beliefs on others. As long as they are our religious beliefs that is.
you guys are reading too far into it. Dems admitted that a lot of their pollical problems were caused by poor messaging with no real consistent platform.
So Rs effectively release a guidebook to their candidates on how to get elected. hammer these issues and stay within the lines for 6 weeks. Its not about the candidate, its about the message. Its about convincing people they are frustrated with dems. Its about reminding people about R friendly hot button issues. its about ignoring the quality or background of the actual candidates.
It looks like a rare smart move from the GOP. Dems dont have much of an answer, just praying for better inflation data.
“This is how you can lie and win your election.”
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well we sure cant just be honest and win.
McConnel showed some honesty by flat out calling GOP candidates crap. Losing strategy telling the truth like that.
Flat out trying to outlaw abortion? cant admit to that kind of thing so close to an election.
admitting the party still revolves around trump? terrible.
Dems got it in a bag according to Michael Moore
abortion!!! free tix to democracy