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Standing Platform |
Preamble
OPPORTUNITY.
The Republican Party, the party that abolished slavery,
stands for equal opportunity for all Americans. We believe
that:
| Neither the federal government nor any agency of the
State of Minnesota should classify its citizens by race
or discriminate among its citizens on the basis of race,
color or religion.
| Younger Americans should be able to save for the
future and build their net worth by investing a portion
of their Social Security payments in their own
retirement accounts, at the same time that we fulfill
our commitments to older Americans.
| The key to opportunity for our children is a good
education, and the best way to ensure quality education
is to return control to parents and local school boards,
emphasize basic skills and knowledge of core subjects,
and allow parents to choose the schools that best meet
their children’s needs.
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STRENGTH.
The Republican Party steadfastly resisted Communist
aggression until the Cold War was won. We think that peace
can best be maintained through strength, both abroad and in
our own communities. Therefore, we believe that:
| It is essential to maintain a strong, well-trained and
adequately-paid military; to deploy American troops
abroad only under American command, to further American
interests or to aid a faithful ally; to promptly develop
and build systems to protect our population against
missile attack; and to fulfill America’s obligations
to its veterans.
| The best way to reduce crime is to get tough with
repeat and violent offenders. Minnesota is too lenient;
we impose notoriously short sentences and have the
lowest incarceration rate in the United States.
| Harassing law-abiding citizens will not stop crime.
There are plenty of federal and state gun laws; we
should enforce the laws we already have rather than
pretending that passing even more laws will be effective
in the absence of aggressive law enforcement.
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FREEDOM.
The first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, wrote
that freedom is “the last, best hope of earth.”
Republicans have never lost our faith in freedom. We believe
that:
| Taxes and government spending should be reduced so
that Americans have more freedom to spend their
hard-earned money in ways that benefit themselves, their
families and their communities.
| Wherever possible, governmental functions should be
carried out by state and local governments, which are
not as remote, inaccessible or inefficient as the
federal government.
| Small businesses should be allowed to grow and prosper
without being choked by government regulations and red
tape.
| The current tax code should be replaced by a simpler,
fairer system like a flat tax or national sales tax.
Neither the federal government nor the State of
Minnesota should tax sickness, death or inheritance.
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THE FAMILY.
Republicans recognize that the family is the most
important unit of our society and the source of most human
progress. We believe that:
| Our government should not undermine the family by
taxing married couples at higher rates than single
individuals, by forcing employers to provide benefits to
persons other than spouses and children, or by
subsidizing and promoting illegitimacy.
| Minnesota should reform its welfare system, which
encourages dependency, family disintegration and
illegitimacy by treating welfare as an entitlement.
Minnesota should adopt a system like Wisconsin’s,
which requires all able-bodied people to work as a
condition of receiving welfare.
| Abortion on demand, forced taxpayer funding of
abortions, and partial birth abortions are wrong and
should not be forced on the people of Minnesota by their
government.
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Taxes, Spending and Regulation
Republicans believe that limited
government is the best government, and that free
enterprise is the best path to prosperity for all
Minnesotans. We support reducing taxes, spending and
regulation to create business opportunities for our
hard-working families and businesses. Therefore, we
support:
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| Cutting federal and state taxes, reducing
spending, sunsetting regulations and limiting
future tax increases by requiring a
supermajority vote in Congress or the Minnesota
Legislature to enact such increases.
| Taxing Minnesotans at a level sufficient to
fund the legitimate needs of state government
without creating surpluses, and returning any
surpluses that may incur to the taxpayers in
proportion to the taxes they paid.
| Reforming and simplifying our complex property
tax system.
| Abolishing the current IRS tax code and
replacing it with a simpler, fairer tax system
that favors a national sales tax or a flat tax.
| Abolishing or substantially reducing federal
and state capital gains taxes, as well as all
taxes on marriage, sickness, death or
inheritance.
| Adopting a constitutional amendment that
requires a balanced federal budget.
| Allowing younger workers to save for the
future and build their net worth by investing a
portion of their Social Security payments, while
fulfilling our obligations to older Americans,
and prohibiting Congress from using Social
Security funds for any other purpose, and
supporting Senator Rod Grams’ “Personal
Security and Wealth in Retirement” plan.
| Requiring that before any new government
project or program is initiated, that its
purpose, cost and anticipated life be set forth
and that performance measurements and
dismantling plans be established when the
project or program does not meet expectations.
| Dedicating all taxes, fees and licenses from
their revenue streams to their appropriate
program funding.
| Maintaining the principle that sports,
entertainment and the arts should be funded by
users and voluntary donors, not by tax dollars,
and opposing corporate welfare.
| Keep internet sales free of taxation.
| Adequately fund highway and bridge
construction in Minnesota, while eliminating all
funding for light rail transit, the costs of
which outweigh any possible benefit.
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Crime
Republicans believe that crime
in Minnesota can best be reduced by getting tough
with violent and repeat criminals. Therefore, we
support:
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| Establishing mandatory minimum prison
sentences, substantially higher for repeat
offenders, and ending probation for violent
criminals and sex offenders.
| Building whatever new prisons are necessary to
protect the public by incarcerating violent
criminals. Prisons are for the protection of the
public and the punishment of criminals and
should not be designed for recreation.
| Re-instituting capital punishment for the most
heinous crimes.
| Changing state law so any juvenile who is
arrested for a violent crime is tried as an
adult.
| Requiring criminals to provide restitution to
victims and the state for crimes committed.
| Enforcing existing firearms laws, particularly
those relating to violent offenders, rather than
creating new and unnecessary laws restricting
the use of firearms, and recognizing a
responsible, competent citizen’s right to
self-defense through gun ownership and a “must
issue” carry permit system.
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Education
Republicans believe that
parents, teachers and local school boards can best
make decisions about our children’s education.
Therefore, we support:
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| Re-emphasizing a knowledge-based curriculum
which includes reading, writing, mathematics and
civics, to prepare our children to compete in
the technology-driven economy of the 21st
century. We support teaching the traditional
Minnesota values of hard work, honesty, home and
family, and respect for our American heritage
and the Constitution.
| Making Minnesota’s education system more
effective and efficient by reducing the federal
and state bureaucracies’ control, as
exemplified by such misguided programs as the
Profile of Learning, School to Work and Goals
2000, which should be abandoned, and returning
authority to parents, teachers and local school
boards as the primary educators of our children.
| Re-establishing the Minnesota Department of
Education and re-orienting it to the focused
role of providing information and support to
local school districts.
| Supporting a statewide testing system that
emphasizes basic skills in a core curriculum.
| Improving the quality of education by
maximizing parental choice through expanded
support for charter schools, school choice
programs, parental rights to home school their
children and more competitive and accountable
public school systems, and by preserving and
expanding tax credits, deductions, and school
voucher programs.
| Reforming tenure, limiting public school
teachers’ right to strike and restoring
balance to the Public Employment Labor Relations
Act. We would institute pay for performance and
periodic competency testing for public school
teachers in both the core curriculum and the
subjects they teach.
| Requiring the inclusion of abstinence until
marriage in public school sex education courses
and prohibiting the dispensing of birth control
drugs and devices in schools. We oppose
dispensing any prescription drugs in schools
without written consent of the parents.
| Requiring the presence of the United States
flag in all classrooms, the daily recitation of
the Pledge of Allegiance, and encouraging the
voluntary expression of religious beliefs and
traditions by students.
| Devoting the same emphasis to educating
Minnesota’s gifted and talented children that
is now devoted to special education.
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Family Security and Defense of
Life
The Republican Party recognizes
the sanctity of human life and the central role of
the family in our society. Therefore, we believe
that:
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| We must adopt policies reflecting the
principle that every human being, born and
unborn, has an inalienable right to life from
conception to natural death.
| Partial birth abortions, forced taxpayer
funding of abortions, abortions performed on
minors without parental consent are wrong and
should not be forced on the people of Minnesota
by their government.
| We should submit to a vote of the people a
constitutional amendment to overturn the
Minnesota Supreme Court’s decision that forces
taxpayers to pay for elective abortions.
| A “Woman’s Right to Know” law must be
adopted, ensuring that women considering
abortion receive information on the health,
safety, emotional and physical repercussions of
abortion, along with information on the
alternatives to abortion.
| Research and experimentation on fetal tissue
or body parts obtained through abortion must be
banned, including the sale of such tissue or
body parts for any purpose.
| Our legislators should consider the effects
that laws relating to taxation, divorce, welfare
and other matters have on the family.
Minnesota’s law governing marriage should be
amended to offer a “Covenant Marriage”
option, entailing extensive pre-marital
counseling and limits on divorce. Parental
privileges of fathers in child custody issues
should be restored to comply with the 14th
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
| Minnesota should prohibit any medical
procedure or therapy that would deliberately
cause or hasten death, including
physician-assisted suicide and deprivation of
food and water.
| Racial preferences in adoption is wrong, and
Minnesota should make it easier and less costly
for married couples to adopt a child of any
race.
| Minnesota should not recognize same sex
marriages or the establishment of homosexuals as
a protected class.
| We should eliminate all advertising promoting
state-sponsored gambling by radio, television or
free promotional items, and other electronic
media.
| Laws and regulations restricting the
production, sale and promotion of obscene
material, especially to children, should be
strengthened, and pornography-blocking software
should be installed on all computers having
internet access in publicly financed
institutions.
| Adopting changes that encourage families to
stay together, including changes in marriage,
divorce, child support, welfare and tax laws.
| Making it easier and less costly for
heterosexual parents to adopt children of any
race.
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Property Rights, Environment and
Agriculture
The Republican Party believes
that proper stewardship of our natural resources and
agricultural lands will best be achieved through
sound science and adherence to
Constitutionally-guaranteed property rights.
Therefore, we support:
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| Maintaining clean air, water and land through
reliance on peer-reviewed scientific research
that establishes proven threats and workable
remedies, and opposing such actions as the Kyoto
Global warming Treaty.
| Imposing the costs of environmental clean-up
on those who cause pollution.
| Compensating owners for property devaluation
when government regulations or other
governmental actions cause a decline in property
values, and support reducing or restricting
government ownership of our land to no more than
40%.
| Following commonsense practices in forest,
wetlands and wildlife management and promoting
multiple uses of natural resources in most
circumstances.
| Upholding the Freedom to Farm and free
enterprise in the agricultural economy, while
reforming the antiquated structure of government
programs, such as the Dairy Compact, that hurt
Minnesota Farmers.
| Encouraging technological advances in the
creation, processing and use of agricultural
products and natural resources.
| Adhering to the original intent of the 1978
BWCAW law and Public Law 91-661 in managing the
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and
Voyageurs National Park and opposing all
attempts by the judiciary or federal government
to usurp constitutionally protected states
rights.
| Urging the passage of the American Land
Sovereignty Act which would require that all
treaties be ratified by Congress before they
could be enacted, even by executive order.
| Opposing legislation that places a state-wide
moratorium on feed lots and logging roads --
townships and counties should decide these
matters.
| We support returning timber wolf management
back to the state.
| Opposing Minnesota Planning’s use of the
1992 United Nations Rio De Janeiro Bio Diversity
Treaty from being used as the basis for any
planning in Minnesota. We support repealing the
Minnesota Community Based Planning Act, since
local government should decide these matters.
| Opposing federal ‘heritage area’ acts that
would generically provide funding and other
opportunities for bureaucracies and other
non-governmental organizations to use tax
dollars to lobby and prepare for regulation of
our land and resources.
| Opposing the Minnesota DNR’s ecosystem
management approach to natural resource
management, while supporting a return to
traditional silverculture and wildlife
management techniques.
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Government Reform and Ethics
Republicans want government to
be honest, efficient and responsive to individual
citizens. Therefore, we advocate:
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| Returning governmental functions from the
federal level to state and local governments
wherever possible, consistent with the intent of
the Constitution. We believe that most
government functions are carried out more
efficiently and with greater accountability at
the state and local level.
| Reinstating a citizen legislature in Minnesota
by holding legislative sessions in alternate
years unless a special session is called by the
Governor.
| Adopting codes of conduct for all Minnesota
elected officials that require resignation upon
conviction of a felony or any crime involving
dishonesty or moral turpitude.
| Ending Congress’ practice of coercing state
and local governments by withholding funds if
states do not enact specified legislation, in
all areas where the Constitution does not give
the federal government jurisdiction.
| Returning the Metropolitan Council to its
original purposes of regional planning and
support, while eliminating, privatizing, or
returning to state and local governments all
other Metropolitan Council functions.
| Adopting an amendment to the U. S.
Constitution prohibiting the desecration of the
United States flag.
| Reforming campaign finance laws so as to
uphold all Americans’ rights to free speech by
allowing American citizens to donate their time
or money to political campaigns without
limitation; requiring immediate and full
disclosure of all sources of campaign funding.
| Maintaining Minnesota’s two-house
legislature, rather than adopting a unicameral
system.
| Allowing judicial candidates to take positions
on issues relevant to their judicial
responsibilities and to seek party endorsement.
| Fair redistricting without gerrymandering and
with Senate districts that do not cross
Congressional district boundaries.
| Reinstating the constitutional separation of
powers by eliminating recognition of legislation
by executive order, judicial rulings, or
un-elected regulatory agencies.
| Submitting to the people constitutional
amendments for an effective recall procedure for
term limits for all elected officials.
| Adopting an initiative and referendum law that
would allow the citizens of Minnesota to vote on
important issues.
| Making English the official language in
Minnesota.
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Health Care and Welfare Reform
Republicans believe that
government control over the choices families make
about their health care should be minimized, and
that competition is the best way to improve the
quality, and to contain the cost, of health care.
Republicans believe that welfare is a privilege, not
an entitlement, and that able-bodied welfare
recipients should be required to work. Therefore, we
support:
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| Programs that reduce health care costs by
introducing genuine market competition into the
system. We oppose all proposals for socialized
(i.e., “single payer”) medicine, and support
the repeal of MinnesotaCare, and opposing
programs that ration health care.
| Giving individuals more health care choices by
permitting medical savings accounts and giving
people the option of using their own money for
the type of plan they choose.
| Providing assistance to people in need
primarily through private charity, including
faith-based programs, rather than government
welfare programs. Such programs should be
encouraged through tax credits at the federal
and state levels with the objective of replacing
as much government-sponsored welfare with
private initiatives as possible.
| Adopting real welfare reform in Minnesota, by
requiring all able-bodied welfare recipients to
work as a condition of receiving benefits, and
by stopping the practice of offering cash
incentives for unmarried welfare recipients to
bear children.
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Legal Reform
Republicans believe that our
legal system has been subject to abuse in the form
of frivolous lawsuits; excessive numbers of
lawsuits; and lawsuits that are intended to advance
a political agenda, rather than adjudicate real
controversies. Therefore, we support:
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| Appointing judges who will exercise their
authority to review, and when necessary limit,
excessive awards of damages and attorneys’
fees.
| Limiting attorneys’ fees in class action
lawsuits and other cases where plaintiffs
receive insignificant damages, so that fees are
not disproportionate to any recovery obtained in
the litigation.
| Enacting legislation limiting any party’s
liability in a civil case to its fair share of
the damages, as determined by the percentage of
fault assessed by the jury.
| Empowering juries to determine that a suit was
without merit, and in such a case requiring the
plaintiff and his attorney to pay the
defendant’s attorneys’ fees and court costs.
| Limiting prisoners’ ability to file
frivolous lawsuits.
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Civil Rights
The Republican Party, the Party
that abolished slavery, believes that the government
should treat all of its citizens equally. Therefore,
we advocate:
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| Encouraging respect for our American heritage
and our status as American cit izens rather than
as members of any group; prohibiting any forms
of discrimination by government including
preferences or quotas for employment, student
admissions and faculty hiring, set-asides in the
awarding of government contracts; repealing all
statutes which require unequal treatment or
special preferences for such groups; and
prohibiting the collection or storage of data on
any person by any government agency for the
purpose of identifying and discriminating among
such groups.
| Protecting the right to religious expression
in any public setting in which the freedom of
speech is protected.
| Protecting personal privacy by prohibiting the
use of social security numbers for any purpose
other than social security identification and
prohibiting the collection or release of any
personal financial, medical, or other private
information by anyone without the express
consent of the person involved.
| Supporting the right of employees to organize,
to join a union or other association, and to not
have dues used to support political candidates;
and requiring unions to receive written
permission from their members before collecting
funds for political purposes.
| Legislation protecting the First Amendment
right of private organizations to set their own
standards for membership.
| Amending the Minnesota Constitution to
guarantee a citizen’s right to keep and bear
arms.
| Reaffirming our support of and commitment to
our active duty military members and veterans,
including exempting active duty military
personnel from paying state income tax, and
supporting the naming of Interstate 94 as
Veterans Memorial Highway.
| Reaffirming our commitment to free market
economics, including free and fair international
trade. Free trade enhances productivity and
expands American markets and influence. People
who are actively involved in free markets create
wealth, experience freedom and shape cultures
and governments.
| Condemning religious, political and ethnic
persecution in any country, specifically the
oppression, slave labor, torture and murder of
Christians and other religious believers.
| Support legal immigration, while at the same
time strengthening our borders and reducing the
flow of illegal immigrants.
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Foreign Affairs and National
Defense
Republicans believe that peace
is best maintained through a strong national
defense. Therefore, we support:
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| Rebuilding America’s military forces, which
have declined drastically in recent years, to
ensure that they are well-prepared, well-armed,
and adequate to protect our national security.
| Developing and deploying defense systems to
protect America from the ever-present dangers of
nuclear, biological and chemical warfare,
including Strategic Missile Defense.
| Deploying American forces overseas only to
further American interests or defend a faithful
ally, and only under the command of American
officers.
| Ensuring that the United States does not
surrender its sovereignty to the United Nations
or any other international organization.
Thisincludes prohibiting the use of U. S. troops
for purposes other than for protecting
America’s national security.
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