The following is a transcript from the Pro America Report with Ed Martin.
Welcome, welcome. Welcome. It’s Ed Martin here on the Pro America Report. Very, very interesting time. Something interesting to tell you about and a few moments we’ll Talk with John Schlafly, we’ll get an update on a topic that is so important, and that is the immigration crisis. We get an update from John. He’s got a new column out, John Schlafly with the Schlafly report and and my feeling is that. Again. Because of the media, the power of the media, we’ve we’ve lost the most important we’re not lost. We’ve we’ve lost, we’ve watched and and and heard the diminishing sounds of a major crisis in our country, which is the immigration invasion, the migrant invasion, the open border, and we’re hearing less and less about it. As Todd Bensman has told us before. And so John’s got a column on that. We’ll talk about it and I think I’m gonna get, you know, fired up and get Bensman back on here and hear what’s what he’s seeing because the border is still open. It’s still being we’re being inundated by migrants and with no controls, no understanding who they are. It’s a disaster. So we’ll we’ll talk more about that then we’ll talk with John Schlafly in a few moments also about the platform.
I put him on, I asked him to come on and talk a little bit more, the platform of a party is the the set. Of statements and really technically resolutions. John will explain that. I think we talked about it a little bit before it used to be called the Committee on resolutions would take up a bunch of resolutions where people say be it resolved, we believe this be it resolved this be resolved that put that all together and that became what was called the platform. Now it’s called the platform committee at every convention the Democrats do it the Republicans do it, national, every Four years, the National Convention, when they nominated the President, they also have a platform that’s created and the Republican Party has a spirited process, especially in the last 40 years, 50 years, a spirited process for putting together a platform. And there are members from every single state and every territory. So over 100, I’ll check my notes, but I think 112, 56 I think that’s right. 56 men and 56 women, one from each of those States and territories. They get together before the Convention and they put together a platform.
Well before that. They have people, staff, workers put together a draft and you go out and ask people what they think and all and and ask the candidate who’s going to be the nominee. What he wants or she wants, at this point it’s always been a he.
And I was recently appointed. That’s the big news to be on that staff. The staff is led by a former ambassador, Randy Evans, who was on the RNC while I was on the RNC. He’s a very good guy from Georgia.
Also, Russ Vought, who is the former cabinet secretary for the Office of Manage and Budget, Management and Budget, the OMB. He’s a he’s a budget expert, a government budget expert, and he. He’s the also, he’s the I guess the director of policy and I’m I’m the deputy director of policy and I’m a part of this. It’s extraordinary privilege to be on there. The three of us. And then there are some other support staff that people that are gonna help book things and help keep an eye on the media and then there’ll be some writers and so it’s a collaboration between the party the. The Republican Party and the campaign, the Trump campaign, and it’s very cool and I’m very honored to be asked to be in there.
And here’s what happens as soon as that news came out publicly, everybody and their brother. And Sister, who has an opinion on a key issue, makes those opinions known to me and to Ambassador Randy Evans and Russ Vought. And so it’s been very interesting already to hear the flood. But, you know, here’s the thing. The platform of a party, people will often say, oh, I don’t even read it or whatever the platform of the party. It’s still the basis of the party. So you can say, well, I don’t read it. You can even have presidential candidates. Bob Dole is one who famously said, Senator Dole do whatever you want on the platform. I’m gonna ignore it. Well, that wasn’t very nice because there were lots of people that that were working on it. And then he said he’s gonna ignore it.
But mostly it’s because he couldn’t Control it and the reason he couldn’t control it is because the system is such that each of the states nominates delegates to the Convention, so you end up at the Convention with a couple thousand delegates and the delegates going to vote on the platform, and the platform is going to express what they want the party to be for, pro-life Pro military, hopefully I think. You know, pro military, but foreign affairs is gonna be an issue because people, I think, don’t. Want. These foreign wars and all on and on education issues, more and more people, I think, will want a clearer articulation of the policy on education of of, of parental control. Well, and parental rights for their kids and some school choice more significant than ever.
Probably things like standing up to the for the role of our law enforcement, you know, standing up against the lawfare. You can go on and on with this list.
It becomes the the description. The set of resolutions become the description of the platform of the party. It doesn’t mean by the way, that every single statement of the platform is something you. Just abide in, but it does say this is what we stand for. This is what we are about. This is what the party is. So that’s what’s that’s what’s in the platform and that’s what we’re gonna be doing in the next 55 plus days as we head towards the convention.
The Republican Convention is in Milwaukee in July, July 17, 18, 19. I think that’s right. And the platform committee meets the week before, on July 7th, 8th and 9th, somewhere in there, and don’t hold me to those. So it’s very interesting if you want to learn more. If you go to the RNC’s website, the Republican National Committee, you could see the previous. Platforms that are listed there and they’re excellent, they’re, I mean, it’s excellent to look at them.
The 2016 platform, which was adopted again in 2020 because COVID had hit and there wasn’t a an ability to go out and do the kinds of development of a of a platform. The 2016 platform is extraordinarily good. Lots of good people that worked on platforms for years and decades say, hey, this was a real deal, a positive a, you know, a a a positive development from 2012, which was a pretty good platform. 2012 was a platform that the Romney campaign, Mitt Romney, was the candidate, and there was some tension back then about whether the Romney campaign wanted this or that. And some of the conservative positions the platform tends to be more conservative, for example, than Romney was the platform in 2016, I think, encapsulated or captured what Donald Trump was doing Pretty well, but this time after a four year term. Where he actually has a record in office, especially on, say things like judges and and other policies, you’re going to see. I think President Trump is going to have a bigger a even bigger influence on the specifics You know.
For example, in 2016 there was a softening of what had been a hard line Against tariffs that the Republicans and so-called conservatives said, oh, we don’t want tariffs because it will lead to a trade war. Well, Donald Trump ran on the fact that he was gonna put tariffs on China, and he did it and it Didn’t crash the economy. In fact, it worked.
And so much so that Joe Biden is actually using tariffs against China. So I think those are those are. The kinds of Issues where Donald Trump showed that he could succeed, and those are the policies that have become. Pretty much wildly, wildly successful for candidates running for office.
So you have a Trump-ier Republican Party, a party that has embraced his positions more specifically. And more clearly. And so I think that’s going to be a factor. It’s gonna be interesting. So we’ll see it it it’s it’s gonna a process. Like I said, plays out just under two months. And so yeah, go to RNC, go to the RNC’s website, check out the previous platforms and if you have a particular issue that you’re motivated on, you know you can you can go and. And see how it’s Handled how it is managed inside the platform and you can and you can find out more.
By the way the website there is a website for the GOP, the Republican Convention. It’s GOP convention2024.com gopconvention2024.com and you can check out that there because there’s a lot of information about that. Including about the events and all that, that is not, however, where you find the platform the the platform of the Republican Party is found on the RNC’s website directly, whichis gop.com gop.com. That’s the Republican National Committee and you can go and check out the rules. But and and there’s resolutions that take place in the interim between the National Party conventions. So there are some resolutions, but the party platform itself is definitively. Offered and you can track it there, right, right on the about page available to look at.
So that’ll be exciting if you’re interested in finding out more, stay tuned on the the Pro America Report, proamericareport.com proamericareport.com because I’m going to write about it quite a bit and be talking about it and getting spending a lot of time as one of the folks working on the platform listening to people, primarily Republicans, but listening to people who may be open to being a Republican voter about what they’re seeing and and feeling and understanding on issues, how they relate to some of the key issues in the party in the Republican Party’s history. And in the Republican Party right now, it will be in a very, very interesting process.
One aspect of the process that’s so different than before is it will play out in a period even from 20. So 2016 was the last time and obviously there was social media and there was a tension. It wasn’t like it is now. Now, eight years later, you’ve got, you know, a non-stop attention. You’ve got non-stop coverage, political coverage of issues being managed by people sometimes from the, you know from the. The ease of their couch to be able to commentate and understand and come up a lot of times with good stuff come up with good angles on and and and understandings of issues. So there’ll be a lot more attention, I suspect, and a lot more tension, maybe, but it will be important to do that. And so that’s all I’ve got on that. Again, go to the Republican party gop.com gop.com and find out more about that. And please go over to proamericareport.com proamericareport.com and sign up for the emails there. But visit phyllisschlafly.com, we are going to start to post. On the website. There. When? When Phyllis in her 70 plus year career in public life, which included participation in politics, she wrote and spoke on the platform lots of times. Incredible number of times. We’re gonna put some, some, if not all of that up on the social, on the Phyllis schlafly.com and you. Can check it out there so. Please do.
Alright. We’ve gotta run. Take a break. We’ll be back with John Schlafly in a moment. Ed Martin here on the Pro America Report. Back in a moment.
