By DAVE ORRICK | dorrick@pioneerpress.com | Pioneer Press PUBLISHED: June 12, 2018
The Republican Party of Minnesota wants to repeal the Legacy Amendment and outlaw gay marriage (again), two of a number of official party positions that might surprise some even within the GOP.
The positions are contained in the Republican party’s official “standing platform” — a collection of positions on issues ranging from taxes to abortion — that was approved earlier this month at the state convention in Duluth.
A word of caution: Party platforms are notoriously skewed toward the fringes of the major political parties because they’re usually drafted by a party’s die-hard members. They’re living documents from previous years that may or may not feel up to date, depending on your view …
As such, many politicians brush off his or her party’s official platform — and frequently hold positions contrary to it. In fact, some activists in each party have tried to eliminate platforms altogether. Still, the platforms are voted on by the convention delegates — the same delegates who voted to endorse, or not, candidates running for office. So if your party’s official endorsement matters, you might want to know something about its platform. And some will read these and say, “I agree 100 percent!” Here are five from Minnesota’s Republican party.
REPEAL LEGACY AMENDMENT
In 2008, 56 percent of Minnesota voters approved the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, choosing to increase sales taxes to fund programs for clean water, protecting the outdoors, improving parks and trails, and preserving arts and cultural endeavors for the next 25 years. The resulting $2.3 billion in total spending has generally been pretty popular. Among lawmakers, the annual “Legacy Bill” is one of the few noteworthy appropriations that often receives resounding bipartisan support. There are detractors, often those who believe that the government should stop buying up land and taking it off property tax rolls — a sentiment echoed in other parts of the GOP platform.
Still, it might surprise some that the official GOP platform calls for its repeal. The position is contained in a section titled “Enjoy and Protect our Natural Resources” that includes a preamble supporting “sound science” and opposing policies “Based on the Theory of Man-Made Global Warming.”
OUTLAW GAY MARRIAGE (AGAIN)
Under a section titled “Strengthen our Families and Communities,” the Republican platform states: “We believe that marriage is between one man and one woman.” It goes on to call for any laws to the contrary to be repealed and the state constitution to be amended to define marriage as between only a man and a woman. Sound familiar?
In 2012, voters rejected a state constitutional amendment to define marriage as “only a union of one man and one woman,” with only 47.4 percent of voters casting a “yes” vote. Many observers saw the Republican-led effort to further outlaw gay marriage — it was already illegal — as boosting the performance of Democrats on Election Day, when both the Senate and the House swung from GOP to DFL control. The next year, the DFL-controlled Legislature passed, and Gov. Mark Dayton signed into law, legislation that fully legalized same-sex unions and marriages. more