A comparison of the 1980 Republican and Democratic Party Platforms on key issues proves that the familiar slogan “there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the two parties” is certainly not applicable this year. The two Platforms offer a clear choice not an echo ideologically, politically, financially, and militarily.
The most striking difference is that the Democrats boast of their increases in federal spending and want to increase it substantially more, while the Republicans want to cut the regulatory power and tax revenues now in the hands of the federal government. The second most striking difference is that the Democrats accept non-traditional lifestyles, while the Republican Platform makes pro-family values a major issue.
On energy, Republicans place their highest priority on “domestic energy production,” wanting us to move forward on all fronts including oil, gas, coal, and nuclear. The Democrats “make energy conservation our highest priority” and want severe restrictions on licenses for nuclear plants, a “standby gasoline-rationing plan,” and more federal funds to develop energy resources.
The Republican Platform supports a 30 percent reduction in personal income taxes spread over the next three years, plus indexing federal income taxes to prevent the automatic tax increase called “bracket creep.” The Democratic Platform supports only “targeted” tax cuts, a nebulous term that escapes specific definition.
The Democrats adopted the Kennedy plank to support an additional $12 billion in deficit spending in order to increase public sector employment. Republicans oppose that because it means merely taking taxes out of one man’s pocket to put them in another.
The Democrats support enactment of a national health insurance program. The Republicans “oppose socialized medicine in whatever guise it is presented.”
The Democrats support federal takeover of state and local welfare programs and a “massive increase” in urban programs. Republicans would establish free-enterprise zones in blighted urban areas to create new private-sector jobs.
The Democrats support equal pay for women “for work of comparable value” to that done by men. Republicans have no such provision and, indeed, most people do not yet understand that this radical concept means giving the federal government great new powers to set equal wages for kinds of work which the bureaucracy arbitrarily determines are of “comparable value,” as for example, stenographers and plumbers, or auto workers and garment workers, or nurses and electricians.
The Republicans support military superiority and oppose the SALT II Treaty which would forbid us ever to catch up with the Soviets. The Democrats support SALT II and have set arms control as their goal rather than U.S. survival.
The Democrats oppose “the exclusion of women from registration” for the military draft. Republicans support the exemption of women from the draft. Republicans oppose gun control. Democrats support it.
The Democrats support repeal of 14-B of the Taft-Hartley Act which allows states to enact right to work laws. Republicans support 14-B.
Republicans oppose forced busing and federally mandated racial quotas. The Democrats approve “mandatory” busing as “a judicial tool of last resort” and support “affirmative action goals to overturn patterns of discrimination in education and employment. Affirmative-action “goals,” “intermediate targets,” and “timetables” are always federally mandated and expressed statistically, so these are just euphemisms for quotas.
The Democrats support increased federal aid to education. (No wonder the National Education Association endorsed Carter.) The Republicans oppose greater federal involvement in public education, favor abolishing the newly-created Department of Education, and support voluntary nondenominational prayer in public schools.
The Republicans support a Human Life Amendment and oppose federal funding for abortions. The Democrats oppose a Human Life Amendment and favor full federal funding for abortions. The Democratic Platform includes a homosexual rights plank; Republicans come out strong for traditional families.
The Democrats support a new raft of restrictions on the right of individuals to contribute to the candidates of their choice, and also want taxpayer financing of Congressional campaigns. The Republicans support political activity by individual citizens and oppose taxpayer financing of Congressional campaigns “as an effort by the Democratic Party to protect its incumbent members of Congress with a tax subsidy.
