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We should strengthen the GOP platform, not weaken it.

By Scott Tibbs, June 2, 2018

To the Indiana Republican Party leadership,

I was elected as a delegate to the Indiana GOP state convention next weekend. I am very disappointed that the Indiana Republican Party has weakened the following language from the 2016 party platform:
"We believe in strong families. We believe that strong families, based on marriage between a man and a woman, are the foundation of society. We also recognize that some families are much more diverse and we support the blended families, grandparents, guardians and loving adults who successfully raise and nurture children to reach their full potential every day."
And replaced it with this:
"We believe in strong families. We believe that strong families are the foundation of society and that such families bring forth citizens capable of self-government as well as properly-motivated public servants so essential for a successful republic. We support the traditional families with a mother and father, blended families, grandparents, guardians, single parents and all loving adults who successfully raise and nurture children to reach their full potential every day."
The language should be strengthened, not weakened. It was already a wishy-washy statement, so watering it down even more is a terrible idea and an affront to the Republican Party's base. A significant portion of your voters are still conservative Christians - the people who were most supportive of Mike Pence and Donald Trump. Discouraging those voters from supporting our party and our candidates is foolish.

The Indiana Republican Party's platform should affirm that the traditional family - with a married mother and father - is the building block of a strong society and that the Republican Party supports the traditional family and traditional marriage. Children need the good diversity of both a mother and a father, and we should endorse God's plan of one man, one woman for life as laid out by our Lord Jesus Christ.

I believe the delegates should be permitted to vote on alternative language to the weak platform on families. Therefore, I propose the following language for our 2018 party platform:

"We believe in strong families. We believe that strong families, based on marriage between a man and a woman, are the foundation of society. We recognize that some families do not meet the ideal standard and nonetheless raise children into responsible, civic minded adults. While we support those families, we affirm that the traditional family is the best environment for raising and nurturing children."

It would actually be better to say nothing at all about "strong families" than to approve the terrible language proposed for the 2018 platform. It is better to do nothing than to do something harmful, and putting language in our platform that undermines the ideal of a marriage between one man and one woman is harmful.