Bush Softens Sharp Edges of Republican Platform

PHILADELPHIA —  Spelling out the credo of “compassionate conservatism,” the Republican Party issued a draft platform Thursday night that moderated the GOP’s official stance on issues from education to immigration.

While maintaining the staunch anti-abortion language of the party’s most recent platforms, the draft document strips away some of the harsher anti-government rhetoric that previously called for banishment of whole departments. The document even calls for some increases in federal spending and regulation in areas such as education and the environment.

“Government does have a role to play, but as a partner, not a rival, to the armies of compassion,” the draft states, borrowing an expression from one of George W. Bush’s standard stump speeches.

The document, a formal statement of party principles, is in reality a manifesto of the Bush campaign, which has controlled the platform-writing process since the Texas governor locked up the GOP nomination in March. The draft released Thursday night will be debated starting today, and few changes are expected before the platform is formally adopted Monday, at the start of the Republican National Convention.

In draft form, the platform reflects Bush’s efforts to tug the GOP toward the center under the rubric of “compassionate conservatism.” Gone are the calls for eliminating half a dozen federal departments, from the National Endowment for the Arts to the Department of Education.

Gone too is the hostile language on immigration of four years ago, adopted in the wake of California’s Proposition 187. The initiative targeting illegal immigration antagonized millions of Latino voters and opened wounds that Republicans--led most avidly by Bush--are trying to heal.

Four years ago, the GOP platform sought to forbid giving social services to illegal immigrants and sought a constitutional amendment ending U.S. citizenship for their children.

In its place, the draft document includes a strong endorsement of the role played by America’s newcomers. “Our country still attracts the best and brightest to invent here, create wealth here and improve the quality of life here,” the document states. “As a nation of immigrants, we welcome these new Americans who have entered lawfully.”

Four years ago, the GOP platform sought to make English the “official” language of the United States. This year, the platform suggests that English should be considered “our common language.” At the same time, however, it encourages “respect for other languages and cultures throughout our society.”

In another striking change of tone, the platform is absent the sort of sniping attacks on President Clinton that characterized the 1996 version. In fact, the newest draft makes only glancing references to Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, the presumed Democratic nominee.

“We want to be uplifting,” Wisconsin Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, chairman of the platform committee, said Thursday on CNN. “We want to be visionary and progressive.”

In some instances, the positions in the draft platform represent a complete reversal. The 1996 version called for abolishing the Department of Education and the end to “federal meddling in schools.”

This year’s draft, while silent on the Education Department, calls for a multi-pronged federal initiative to improve literacy and make it easier for parents to pay for their child’s education. The platform also calls for merit pay for teachers, improved training and protection from “meritless lawsuits.”

In an explicit effort to reach out to female voters, who have tended to vote Democratic in most recent presidential campaigns, the platform also contains a section calling for research into “diseases and health issues that disproportionately affect women.” Such medical research is “one of the few areas in which government investment yields tangible results,” the draft says.

Overall, however, the document continues to advocate a mostly hands-off approach to health care, favoring “a health care system that supports, not supplants, the private sector.”

Indeed, for all the moves in the direction of moderation, the platform remains a firmly conservative statement of beliefs, underpinned by the philosophy that a limited federal government is best.

It calls for tax cuts and sweeping changes in what it called a “dysfunctional” federal tax code. In the area of environmental regulation, the platform favors a policy of cooperation with private interests and an emphasis on state regulation over mandates from Washington.

It maintains the position that homosexuality is incompatible with military service and, most tellingly, continues to advocate a constitutional amendment that would outlaw abortion under all circumstances.

“The unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed,” the draft platform says, a sentiment that has been expressed in the last several GOP platforms. In addition, the draft calls for the appointment of federal judges who would overturn Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.

Bush has said he opposes litmus tests for judges and believes in allowing abortions in cases of rape, incest or to save a mother’s life. But to avoid a fight over the platform, which presidential candidates ignore at will, Bush made clear he would make no attempt to amend the more restrictive language.

The abortion plank is likely to be at the center of debate over the next two days, as Republicans favoring abortion rights seek once more to revise the platform to recognize their opposing views.

Asked if he worries that a repeat platform fight will undermine the image of tolerance and unity that Republicans are trying to portray, Party Chairman Jim Nicholson replied, “There’s nothing new about this discussion.” While the dissidents are unlikely to prevail, he said, at least “pro-choice Republicans have a voice in our party.”

Conservatives, meantime, said they will try to restore some of the stronger anti-gay language from the 1996 platform and put the party on record again calling for elimination of the Education Department.

Such squabbles aside, Thompson said he thinks Bush “is going to feel very comfortable with the platform.” But he conceded, “I don’t think anybody can embrace it in total.”

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