Republicans like to blame the EVIL DEMOCRATIC MACHINE for their near constant string of electoral failures in Massachusetts. They prefer not to talk about how their state party platform is better aligned with views in the Arizona legislature than in Massachusetts:
Reflecting a major shift in the makeup of the elected Republican State Committee, activists overwhelmingly embraced a new platform Tuesday night that frowns upon abortion and praises traditional marriage.
After a spirited debate in which some members disputed whether social issues should be included in the party’s guiding principles at all, the activists backed the new platform by a 52-to-16 vote.
That's right, the hate platform didn't just squeak by with a thin majority -
Republican leaders chose hate in a landslide.
It's part of a movement to bring the Massachusetts Republican Party backwards:
The move reflects the changing membership of the 80-member committee, which has gained an influx of activists who work for groups that tried to stop gay marriage in Massachusetts a decade ago and that have sought greater influence over promoting candidates and steering public policy.
Actually, re-fighting the battles of a decade ago could be progress: Republicans have spent most of the last generation re-fighting the battles of the 1960s.
Here's the most amazing line from Stephanie Ebbert's reporting in today's Boston Globe:
[Platform Committee chairwoman Amy Carnevale] said that most members should be able to agree upon the carefully crafted language, which also rejects all forms of discrimination and prizes individual rights and freedom.
Individual rights and freedom must be prized! Unless you're a woman or gay, in which case Republicans will use Big Government to enforce your role as a
"host" for a fetus and to prevent you from getting married.
For all the talk of Republican "rebranding" we've been forced to endure from political reporters since Democrats won majorities of the national popular vote for President, Senate and House in 2012, the truth is Republican party leadership continues to double down on hateful, divisive policies.
Individual rights? Today's Republican leadership prefers to help its rich & powerful friends at TransCanada seize American property through eminent domain than stand with Nebraska landowners.
Freedom? Top Republicans are much more interested in preserving discrimination.
The free market & helping small businesses? GOP power brokers would rather sic Big Government on clean energy underdogs challenging monopolistic corporate polluters.
And if all that isn't enough: GOP staffers taunting Elizabeth Warren with racist war whoops!
Personally, I am fine with Republican leadership dragging their party into the perpetually-losing-by-a-landslide wilderness. But I have to wonder: How do rank-and-file Republicans feel about their party leadership's hateful extremism? Will they ever speak up?
Cross-posted from Blue Mass Group