Heard on the Tom/Toms
Stephen Frank, Exclusive to the California Political News and Views, 8/3/23 www.capoliticalreview.com
O’Reilly to Pro-Lifers and Marriage Traditionalists: Drop Dead.
The California Republican Party is on the path to not only discarding their significant advantage over Democrats—man-woman traditional marriage and unwavering defense of innocent life, but to driving away their base. And we have none other than “Party-Man” and erstwhile “Conservative” Republican Timothy O’Reilly, Chairman of the Platform Drafting Committee to thank for leading us from irrelevance to oblivion.
The California Republican Party Platform Drafting Committee last Saturday voted almost unanimously to end official Republican support of traditional marriage. Never mind that it is enshrined in the California State Constitution. With moist finger planted firmly in the wind, the “rookie” Platform Committee Chairman kept Republicans from being on the “wrong” side of the 2024 ballot measure that will ask California voters to reaffirm same-sex marriage by amending the California Constitution. After all Republicans could lose the few remaining seats we have. Laydown now and we don’t have to make an argument.
In fact, opening the meeting, O’Reilly announced that the current platform was a “word salad” worthy of Kamala Harris. No report on whether kackles could be heard, but there certainly was snap crackle and pop. When the meeting was finished, the first defense against government overreach—the traditional family—had been neutered.
With very little resistance, the Committee removed “natural” and “morality” from the Family plank and shifted focus from “marriage as a union between one man and one woman” to “children and the family unit”. Along with neuter went nature and nurture. The current platform statement about the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v Hodges “not be[ing] used to coerce a church or religious institution into performing marriages that their faith does not recognize” was twisted into the “pivotal role[s] [those institutions] play in strengthening both marriage and families”. Churches don’t need no stinking protection either.
Attorney Tim O’Reilly said the argument was simple—same sex marriage is the law, so Republicans must go with the law. But instead of following Antonio Villaraigosa’s 2008 lead in heading off the Democrat’s disastrous attempt to remove God from their platform, Tim led California Republicans over the proverbial cliff. By the way, California Republicans have not had the word “God” in our platform since 2007. Hmmm, maybe we should fix that.
Nor does the O’Reilly led CAGOP want to be seen on the wrong side of abortion after the United States Supreme Court returned the question to the States. Instead, “Democrat-Lite” Tim O’Reilly ended the California Republican Party efforts to save pre-born babies on scientific and moral grounds. He was clear, whatever the product of conception is, it not human life. There was no explanation for what he thought it was—animal, vegetable or mineral.
Once again, the Tim’s actions have kept the Party from reaching out to young women who have been brainwashed into believing their pregnancy is a “clump of cells” and not a real baby. Evidently, he is fine with allowing them to believe there is no consequence for an abortion right up to the moment of birth. Where is the compassion for a woman caught in the midst of a life change she did not count on? Is there nothing we can learn from the sidewalk counselors?
Math may not be Tim O’Reilly’s only challenge. He is obviously not a student of history or the Republican Party. Over a century and a half ago, the Grand Old Party was founded on the basis of opposition to slavery. Back then Democrats supported slavery—as they do today—and the Republicans opposed it—even though at the time slavery was legal. Today, if O’Reilly has his way, the California Republican Party will go along with the Democrat Party and allow them to end traditional marriage without a fight.
Between ending traditional marriage and refusing to defend innocent life, this may be the provocation that gets conservatives to leave the Republican Party in California. After years of no voter registration, not running candidates in all districts, the “jihad” against conservative GOP nominees by unendorsing them, this could be the switch that turns out the lights on the GOP in California.
Without People of Faith, their churches and synagogues, and those that believe in marriage and choose life, the GOP will have no grassroots. It will become if it is not already, a Party of grifters and wannabee Democrats.
Tim O’Reilly took the drafting committee on a meandering journey from traditional conservatism to “Democrat-Lite” in the space of four hours. He wouldn’t allow items to be considered out of his order. There was no vigorous debate. Just mechanical application of “subcommittee” recommendations. Most of the time that consisted of one person’s opinion not the full three members because the “rookie” Chairman only formed them less than three days prior to the Platform drafting meeting.
This was all done in the service to the “one-page platform” that was entered onto the agenda only by suspending the rules so the late proposal by the President of the California Log Cabin Republicans could be considered without scrutiny. And to let supporters of the Republican Party they are not wanted at the table. They need to shut up and vote Democrat values, not the Republican values that made this Country strong and this State great.
In two words, Drop Dead.
(Periodically the California Political News and Views will publish tidbits of political news, to keep you in the loop of what the pooh bahs know. The phrase “tom/tom’s” comes from my mentor, Lorelei Kinder who never passed a rumor, just called to tell me what she heard on the “TomTom’s”. This column is named in her honor.)
