I believe in limited government, personal freedom, and personal responsibilities. Under the Constitution, we have many rights, some explicitly defined, and others implied. The government should not infringe on our rights without a clear and convincing need to do so.
I believe our rights also come with responsibilities. It is not enough to just know and demand out rights; we should and must exercise them responsibility.
I am a Capitalist, and believe in the free market. I believe that the government’s job is to protect the free market from unfair competition, monopolies, and other bad actors.
I believe that we should hold our elected leaders to a higher standard of behavior than is required of regular citizens.
We believe that basic to governmental integrity are unimpeachable ethical standards and irreproachable personal conduct by all people in government. We shall continue our insistence on honesty as an indispensable requirement of public service. We shall continue to root out corruption whenever and wherever it appears.
1956 Republican Party Platform
The U.S. Constitution
The U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land. However, the are several schools of thought on how the Constitution should be interpreted and applied:
Strict Construction: This school of thought states that the Constitution should be taken word for word, without any changes and without any additional interpretation. What is says in black and white is absolute, and if it is not written, it does not matter.
Original Intent: This school of thought is closely linked to Strict Construction, but adds to it. Under this school of thought, when the Constitution is silent or ambiguous on an issue, we look to what the Founding Fathers intended it to be. We look at speeches, debates, and papers from the writing of the Constitution to find out what their intent was.
Progressive: This school of thought holds that the Constitution is a living, breathing document that must be interpreted in a manner that reflects current societal mores, technological advances, and the changing times. When judges take this approach, they are often accused of “legislating from the bench”. Although liberal judges seem to favor this school of thought, conservative judges also use it when need to justify a ruling they want to make.
I believe in all three schools of thought. Each issue must be decided on its own merits using the combination of the above schools of thought that best applies to the issue under consideration.
Personal Freedoms
Our rights are sacred to us, and we must be allowed to exercise our rights as we see fit, so long as our exercising our rights does not interfere with other people exercising their rights.
Our rights are not absolute, and they come with responsibilities as well.
Fiscal Responsibility
Fiscal Responsibility does NOT mean simply lowering taxes. Fiscal Responsibility means ensuring that taxes are high enough to PAY OUR BILLS! It is fiscally irresponsible to have a budget deficit during times of economic boom. To have increased the deficit to historic amounts during the longest economic expansion in history is an absolute disgrace.
That does not mean that budget Deficits are not always irresponsible. In times of crisis, prudence requires that we take actions to protect our citizens and our economy, such as what we are doing right now with the Stimulus package. But we have to realize that is will be our responsibility to RAISE TAXES so that we can pay this back when the economy recovers.
Equality for All
This is the principle under which Lincoln freed the slaves, Roosevelt broke up the trusts, and Eisenhower expanded civil rights and increased minimum wage. But today’s Republican leaders seem to have forgotten all about this principle. They oppose every attempt to ensure that all citizens have the ability to vote. They know that they have lost most of the minority votes, so they pass laws that make in harder for the poor and minorities to vote. They justify this by claiming that these restrictions are needed to prevent voter fraud, although there has never been evidence of any significant voter fraud.