party principles
“Extreme, far-right stuff”: Republicans in Texas pass radical program
The Capitol in Austin, Texas: Republicans have controlled both houses of parliament in the state for many years
© Christopher Boswell / Picture Alliance
Texas Republicans held a party convention over the weekend. In the program they adopted there, the party of ex-President Donald Trump shows its entire range of radical positions.
The Republicans in the USA have not only been moving further to the right since Donald Trump. Long before the former president, radical voices in the Grand Old Party (GOP) had grown louder with the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement. How far this radicalization has now progressed could now be seen in Houston. Thousands of delegates gathered there for the GOP Texas convention over the weekend — and Principles laid down that have it all.
Republicans are anti-gay and transgender
In a program passed in Houston, Republicans describe homosexuality as an “abnormal lifestyle choice” and gender dysphoria, i.e. problems in the development of gender identity, as a rare mental illness. They also support conversion therapies — which they call “reintegrative therapies” — to turn members of the LGBTQ community straight and eliminate “unwanted same-sex attraction.”
“We oppose all efforts to validate transgender identities,” the program also says. Physicians are prohibited from “intervening in any way to prevent the natural progression of puberty” in people aged 21 or younger whose self-perception does not match their biological sex. The “administration or provision of hormones of the opposite sex” and “interventions on healthy parts of the minor’s body” are also taboo.
The Log Cabin Republicans, an organization representing LGBTQ Republicans according to the Huffington Post setting up your own stand at the party congress is prohibited. For this, the congress participants were “overwhelmed with leaflets” that attacked the LGBTQ community. One read the warning: “Beware of the homosexual agenda”.
The meeting rejected the attempt by a delegate to weaken the wording on homosexuality in the party program according to the Texas Tribune away. “It doesn’t get us any further as a party and it doesn’t get voters,” Jason Vaughn, an openly gay Republican from Houston, reportedly criticized the passage but was unable to enforce. Vaughn later explained according to the Washington Post in an interview that what happened at the congress was the result of a small number of people who “wanted to do all this extreme, far-right stuff”.
Sex education in schools should be banned
The program also addresses the issue of abortion. Accordingly, children in Texas schools should learn something about “the dignity of the unborn human being”. They are to be taught that life begins with fertilization and the demonstration of live ultrasound images is intended to discourage abortions.
At the same time, it is being asked that the state ban all teaching about sexuality, including sexual health or sexual identity, in any public school, regardless of grade. All books or teaching materials with relevant content should be removed from schools. until the ban goes into effect. only the avoidance of sexual risks and abstinence outside of marriage should be taught. Before a student is taught about sexuality or family planning, the parents or other legal guardians must agree in writing.
“The issue of gender has nothing to do with education,” Cindi Castilla, who worked on the program, told the Texas Tribune. “Education is about reading, writing, math, science, history and fine arts. Maybe a few foreign languages and sports. […] Schools are not the social educators of our children.”
Guns were also on the Republican agenda: Less than a month after an 18-year-old slaughtered 19 children and two teachers with an assault rifle at an elementary school in their own state, delegates booed and condoned their party mate, Senator John Cornyn a formal rebuke for engaging in bipartisan gun control talks.
Texas GOP does not recognize Biden as president
And Donald Trump’s lie about the stolen 2020 presidential election also anchored the Grand Old Party in Texas in its principles: In a resolution, the party members declared that there was “considerable electoral fraud in the voting […] in favor of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.” They therefore dismissed the results of the election, noting that the incumbent President “was not lawfully elected by the people of the United States”.
The 275 agenda items voted on at the convention over the weekend are largely symbolic and do not imply any immediate change in Texas policy or legislation. Party programs are guiding principles rather than legal principles, and in Texas they have long reflected the opinions of the most active wings of the parties, writes the Texas Tribune. Elected Republican officers are not required to adhere to the program.
Nevertheless, they are “important as a measure of ideological deviations,” political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus of the University of Houston told the newspaper. And they are far-reaching indicators of the feelings of the most active Republican voters — those who dominate the party’s primaries. In addition to the state-wide midterms, important gubernatorial elections are coming up in Texas in November, in which incumbent Greg Abbott has to face Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke.
Opening the convention on Thursday, Texas Republican leader Matt Rinaldi urged his fellow campaigners to “take the fight squarely to the left and go on the offensive.” The GOP — traditionally represented by the color red as opposed to the demo rates’ blue — will turn gains in the fall, Rinaldi predicted. And he prophesied to the state and the rest of the country: “A red wave will sweep over Texas and this nation and usher in a new era.”
Sources: Report of the Republican Committee, “Texas Tribune”, “Huffington Post”, “Washington Post”