Iowa GOP set to finalize platform

CEDAR RAPIDS - 'God” gets higher billing, but little more mention in the Republican Party of Iowa's proposed platform than 'sex.”

The platform, which will be debated by about 2,000 delegates at the GOP's state convention beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines has been trimmed from the 17,534-word document delegates approved two years ago to just 2,027 words.

That's likely to be the most dramatic change in the platform, according to Republican Gov. Terry Branstad.

'We know the makeup of the grass roots who really are the ones who are going to write the platform well enough that I don't expect to see radical changes in the platform,” he said earlier this week.

In trimming the platform, multiple mentions of God were omitted. After years of the party being controlled by the Christian right, the 2012 convention, dominated by libertarian-leaning 'Paulistas” - followers of Ron Paul or his son, Rand Paul, or both - reduced the mentions of God to just three.

There's one mention in the 2014 draft acknowledging that 'our rights derive from God and are therefore unalienable and include life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (i.e. private property).”

The only mention of sex in the platform is a plank in support of legislation to ban groups, specifically Planned Parenthood, from teaching sex education and 'promoting promiscuous behavior and abortion” in public schools.

There's no mention of the state gas tax despite a simmering debate - and vocal opposition from former GOP Chairman A.J. Spiker - about raising the 22-cent-per gallon tax that hasn't been changed in more than two decades.

'I think we pretty much know the makeup of that convention is not likely to recommend an increase in the gas tax,” Branstad said. 'Nor do I think they are going to change our stand on support for one-man, one-woman marriage and pro-life and those things.”

He doubts the convention will follow the lead of U.S. House 1st District Republicans, who adopted a plank saying there should be no role for government in marriage.

'The state platform committee has not gone that direction, so I don't foresee that happening,” Branstad said.

The DRAFT platform calls for a constitutional amendment supporting the 'honored tradition of marriage as the legal union between one natural man and one natural woman.”

It also calls for promoting alternatives to abortion and opposing public funding of abortion.

Marijuana didn't make the platform, but support for cannabis oil for medicinal purposes is included.

The proposed platform calls for an end to estate taxes, or 'death taxes,” replacing the federal income tax with a consumption tax, repealing the Affordable Care Act - Obamacare, abolishing Common Core and Iowa Core, supporting the Second Amendment and retaining the Electoral College.

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