Cover Images: Clinton/Kaine AFP Photo/Gaston De Cardenas, Trump/Pence AP Photo/Paul Sancya
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Restoring CHRIST in the Culture
magazine
Restoring CHRIST in the Culture
magazine
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October 2016
Contrasting Platforms
Images: DNC Convention 2016 AP Photo/Dake Kang, RNC Convention 2016 Getty Images/Alex Wong
When George Wallace ran his presidential campaign in 1968, he had the slogan that “there’s not a dime’s worth of difference” between his two opponents (Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey). Actually there was more the ten cents worth...
4 Two Visions for America
Republicans and Democrats not only have two different views on social issues, but they also differ on many other policy issues. How should we fund public education? What should we do with the crime problem and the criminal justice system? How should...
8 The Tale of Two Platforms
Every four years, the national political parties draft a party platform through delegates to the national convention with input from the candidate. The Republican and Democratic Party platforms have always been different from...
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CONTRASTING PLATFORMS By Kerby Anderson
When George Wallace ran his presidential campaign in 1968, he had the slogan that “there’s not a dime’s worth of difference” between his two opponents (Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey). Actually there was more than ten cents worth of difference back then, and there is a billion dollars worth of difference now. Most of the controversy surrounding the Republican Party platform last week focused on a few issues. It rejected many of the demands of LGBT activists and criticized the Supreme Court’s ruling that legalized same-sex marriage. It stated that marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman. It also called for a wall rather than a fence on the Mexican border. Although the New York Times claimed that the platform went far to the right, it wasn’t really that different in many ways from the 2012 Republican Platform. That is not the case for the Democratic Platform. William Galston served in the Clinton administration and explained in a recent op-ed how the Democratic Platform has veered sharply to the left. This is no doubt due to the many Bernie Sanders delegates who have been working hard to move the party even further to the left. Galston says: “The party that Hillary Clinton will lead into battle this fall is not Bill Clinton’s Democratic Party.” It includes a $15 per hour minimum wage and makes the case for government to expand its reach far beyond the platform proposals of four years ago. The 2012 platform declared that the death penalty must not be “arbitrary.” This year, the platform demands the abolition of the death penalty. Four years ago, the platform called for the reasonable regulation of guns. This time there is no reference at all to the Second Amendment. I encourage you to look at the two party platforms. We will post them on the Point of View website at pointofview.net/vote. No one can say that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between these two parties. The platforms are strikingly different from each other on virtually every issue. Outlook
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T W O
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TWO VISIONS for
AMERICA By Kerby Anderson
Republicans and Democrats not only have two different views on social issues, but they also differ on many other policy issues. How should we fund public education? What should we do with the crime problem and the criminal justice system? How should we deal with immigration? These are just a few examples of very different visions these two parties have. E D U C AT I O N – R E P U B L I C A N The Republican platform supports every form of education (public, private, home-school) and supports educational choice: Photo: Bill Pugliano /Getty Images
“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.” — JOHN F. KENNEDY
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We support options for learning, including home-schooling, career and technical education, private or parochial schools, magnet schools, charter schools, online learning, and earlycollege high schools. We especially support the innovative financing mechanisms that make options available to all children: education savings accounts (ESAs), vouchers, and tuition tax credits. . . . A young person’s ability to succeed in school must be based on his or her God-given talent and motivation, not an address, ZIP code, or economic status. E D U C AT I O N – D E M O C R AT The Democratic platform emphasizes such ideas as free college and greater government involvement in education. Here is a relevant section: Democrats believe that in America, if you want a higher education, you should always be able to get one: money should never stand in the way. Cost should not be a barrier to getting a degree or credential, and debt should not hold you back after you graduate. Bold new investments by the federal government, coupled with states reinvesting in higher education and colleges holding the line on costs, will ensure that Americans of all backgrounds will be prepared for the jobs and economy of the future. Democrats are unified in their strong belief that every student should be able to go to college debt-free, and working families should not have to pay any tuition to go to public colleges and universities.
TWO VISIONS for
AMERICA
The constitutionality of the death penalty is firmly settled by its explicit mention in the Fifth Amendment. With the murder rate soaring in our great cities, we condemn the Supreme Court’s erosion of the right of the people to enact capital punishment in their states. — On the death penalty, from the 2016 Republican platform.
Image from Andrew Lichtenstein’s series “Life in Prison”.
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CRIME – REPUBLICAN Republicans in the platform called for the next president to restore the public’s truth in law enforcement. It went on to argue that the “Republican Party, a party of law and order, must make clear in words and action that every human life matters.” Here is part of the platform: Two grave problems undermine the rule of law on the federal level: Over-criminalization and overfederalization. In the first case, Congress and federal agencies have increased the number of criminal offenses in the U.S. Code from 3,000 in the early 1980s to more than 4,500 today. That does not include an estimated 300,000 regulations containing criminal penalties. . . . The over-federalization of criminal justice is one of many ways in which the government in Washington has intruded beyond its proper jurisdiction. The essential role of federal law enforcement personnel in protecting federal property and combating interstate crime should not be compromised by diversion to matters properly handled by state and local authorities.
population is in the United States, even though our country has less than five percent of the world’s population. We will reform mandatory minimum sentences and close private prisons and detention centers. D E AT H P E N A LT Y – R E P U B L I C A N
The Republican platform supports the death penalty: The constitutionality of the death penalty is firmly settled by its explicit mention in the Fifth Amendment. With the murder rate soaring in our great cities, we condemn the Supreme Court’s erosion of the right of the people to enact capital punishment in their states. In solidarity with those who protect us, we call for mandatory prison time for all assaults involving serious injury to law enforcement officers.
C R I M E – D E M O C R AT
D E AT H P E N A LT Y – D E M O C R AT
Democrats focused their platform on reforming the criminal justice system and reducing the prison population in America. Here is a relevant section:
Four years ago, the Democratic platform did not call for the abolition of the death penalty. It does so in the 2016 platform:
Democrats are committed to reforming our criminal justice system and ending mass incarceration. Something is profoundly wrong when almost a quarter of the world’s prison
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We will abolish the death penalty, which has proven to be a cruel and unusual form of punishment. It has no place in the United States of America. The application of the death penalty is arbitrary and unjust. The cost to taxpayers far exceeds those of life imprisonment. It does not deter crime. And, exonerations show a dangerous lack of reliability for what is an irreversible punishment.
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I M M I G R AT I O N – R E P U B L I C A N
I M M I G R AT I O N – D E M O C R AT
The Republican platform supports the building of a wall and any other mechanism that can be used to secure the U.S. border:
The Democratic platform calls for a path to citizenship and supports the immigration programs begun by the president. Here is a summary of some of the sections in the platform:
That is why we support building a wall along our southern border and protecting all ports of entry. The border wall must cover the entirety of the southern border and must be sufficient to stop both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. We insist upon workplace enforcement of verification systems so that more jobs can be available to all legal workers. . . . Because “sanctuary cities” violate federal law and endanger their own citizens, they should not be eligible for federal funding. Using state licenses to reward people in the country illegally is an affront to the rule of law and must be halted.
Democrats believe we need to urgently fix our broken immigration system—which tears families apart and keeps workers in the shadows—and create a path to citizenship for law-abiding families who are here, making a better life for their families and contributing to their communities and our country. . . . And while we continue to fight for comprehensive immigration reform, we will defend and implement President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans executive actions to help DREAMers, parents of citizens, and lawful permanent residents avoid deportation. . . .We reject attempts to impose a religious test to bar immigrants or refugees from entering the United States. These are just a few of the differences in the two platforms. We encourage you to read both of the platforms in their entirety. They are available on the Point of View website at pointofview.net/vote.
Immigrant rights protesters rally as Republican presidential candidate, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal speaks at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
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T H E TA L E O F T W O P L AT F O R M S
T h e Ta l e o f
TWO PLATFORMS By Kerby Anderson
Every four years, the national political parties draft a party platform through delegates to the national convention with input from the candidate. The Republican and Democratic Party platforms have always been different from each other. This time there is a stark difference. The Republican platform is somewhat more conservative than four years ago. The Democratic platform is much more liberal than four years ago. Let’s look at the different views they have on the social issues we often discuss on Point of View. ABORTION – REPUBLICAN Image by Gage Skidmore, Wikimedia.
“If Planned Parenthood wants to be involved in providing counseling services and HIV testing, they ought not be in the business of providing abortions.” —
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We oppose the use of public funds to perform or promote abortion or to fund organizations, like Planned Parenthood, so long as they provide or refer for elective abortions or sell fetal body parts rather than provide healthcare. We urge all states and Congress to make it a crime to acquire, transfer, or sell fetal tissues from elective abortions for research, and we call on Congress to enact a ban on any sale of fetal body parts. A B O R T I O N – D E M O C R AT The Democratic platform focuses on “protecting and advancing reproductive health and rights.” The platform wants to continue to fund Planned Parenthood and also now calls for the repealing of the Hyde Amendment. That would allow for the federal funding of abortion. Here is a representative section of the platform: We will continue to stand up to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood health centers, which provide critical health services to millions of people. We will continue to oppose—and seek to overturn—federal and state laws and policies that impede a woman’s access to abortion, including by repealing the Hyde Amendment. We condemn
MIKE PENCE Republican VP Candidate
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The Republican platform on abortion maintains its pro-life stand and addresses some of the contemporary issues concerning the funding of abortion and the selling of fetal parts from abortion. Here is a representative section of the platform:
2016
T h e Ta l e o f
TWO PLATFORMS
“We’re going to protect Christianity. I don’t have to be politically correct.” — Donald Trump Speaking at Liberty University
Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate, at Liberty University on Jan. 18, 2016. (Drew Angerer / Bloomberg)
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and will combat any acts of violence, harassment, and intimidation of reproductive health providers, patients, and staff. We will defend the ACA, which extends affordable preventive health care to women, including no-cost contraception, and prohibits discrimination in health care based on gender. RELIGIOUS LIBERTY – REPUBLICAN Religious liberty was obviously an important issue for Republicans. This section covers many issues ranging from freedom of conscience to religious freedom restoration legislation. Here is a sample of the platform: We pledge to defend the religious beliefs and rights of conscience of all Americans and to safeguard religious institutions against government control. We endorse the First Amendment Defense Act, Republican legislation in the House and Senate which will bar government discrimination against individuals and businesses for acting on the belief that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. This Act would protect the non-profit tax status of faith-based adoption agencies, the accreditation of religious educational institutions, the grants and contracts of faith-
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based charities and small businesses, and the licensing of religious professions — all of which are under assault by elements of the Democraticic Party. We encourage every state to pass similar legislation. We likewise endorse the efforts of Republican state legislators and governors who have defied intimidation from corporations and the media in defending religious liberty. We support laws to confirm the longstanding American tradition that religious individuals and institutions can educate young people, receive government benefits, and participate in public debates without having to check their religious beliefs at the door. R E L I G I O U S L I B E R T Y – D E M O C R AT By contrast, Democrats said much less about religious liberty and used much of the party plank to criticize Donald Trump. Here is a sample of that platform: As we prosecute the fight against terrorism, Democrats will repudiate vile tactics that would do us harm. We reject Donald Trump’s vilification of Muslims. It violates the religious freedom that is the bedrock of our country and feeds into ISIS’ nefarious narrative. It also alienates people and countries who are crucial to defeating terrorism; the vast majority of Muslims believe in a future of peace and tolerance. We reject Donald Trump’s suggestion that our military should engage in war crimes, like torturing prisoners or murdering civilian family members of suspected terrorists. These tactics run counter to American principles, undermine our moral standing, cost innocent lives, and endanger Americans. HOMOSEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER RIGHTS – REPUBLICANS Republicans criticized the administration for changing the meaning of Title IX in order to advance transgender rights and force states to open bathrooms to people based upon their perceived gender. This is part of that platform plank:
T h e Ta l e o f
TWO PLATFORMS That same provision of law is now being used by bureaucrats — and by the current President of the United States — to impose a social and cultural revolution upon the American people by wrongly redefining sex discrimination to include sexual orientation or other categories. Their agenda has nothing to do with individual rights; it has everything to do with power. They are determined to reshape our schools — and our entire society — to fit the mold of an ideology alien to America’s history and traditions. Their edict to the states concerning restrooms, locker rooms, and other facilities is at once illegal, dangerous, and ignores privacy issues. We salute the several states which have filed suit against it.
HOMOSEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER RIGHTS – DEMOCRAT Democrats, on the other hand, give full support to the homosexual and transgender agenda. Here is a sample of the platform: Democrats applaud last year’s decision by the Supreme Court that recognized that LGBT people—like other Americans— have the right to marry the person they love. . . . We will also fight for comprehensive federal non-discrimination protections for all LGBT Americans, to guarantee equal rights in areas such as housing, employment, public accommodations, credit, jury service, education, and federal funding. We will oppose all state efforts to discriminate against LGBT individuals, including legislation that restricts the right to access public spaces. We support a progressive vision of religious freedom that respects pluralism and rejects the misuse of religion to discriminate. As you can see just from this sample of a few social issues, the Republican and Democratic platforms are very different and require voters to decide which vision for America they will support in November.
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ONE STOP SOURCE for
ELECTION RESOURCES
Volume 12 • October 2016 President / Publisher
Warren Kelley
Contributing Writers
Kerby Anderson
Outlook is published by Point of View Ministries (the parent company of Point of View Radio Talk Show), a non-profit ministry recognized for tax-deductible giving by the IRS. Copyright © 2016 Point of View Ministries. All rights reserved.
Outlook is a monthly publication produced for Point of View’s TruthTeam360. TruthTeam360 members help underwrite the Point of View Radio Talk Show through their commitment to give regularly to the ministry. Point of View Radio Talk Show has helped to shape the worldview of an entire generation of Americans. The broadcast equips listeners with the tools to take our biblical values into the culture and apply them to every area of life. For more information about Point of View or to become a TruthTeam360 member, go to www.pointofview.net or call (800) 227-1444. For stations and broadcast times in your area, please visit us online at www.pointofview.net or call (800) 227-1444. The Point of View Radio Talk Show broadcast is also available on the Point of View web site live, through the Point of View Radio app, through Facebook and is archived as a podcast.
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