Winston-Salem Journal interviews 5th District Congressional Rep. Virginia Foxx, who co-chaired the Republican Party’s platform for this week’s convention in Cleveland:
The GOP platform had not been released heading into the weekend, but Foxx described some of its provisions: strong on social issues like opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage; committed to stopping illegal immigration with a wall — though not promising, as Donald Trump has, to make Mexico pay for it; voicing support for free trade, but also “fair trade”; and strong on defense, support of Israel and opposition to ISIS and other terrorism.
Despite criticism from gay rights advocates, Foxx said the party has nothing to apologize for in supporting traditional marriage between “one man and one women.”
“I think that most Republicans believe that the Republican Party is a conservative party, meaning that we believe in traditional values, values that we believe have made the country great “ Foxx said. “Adhering to those values continues to be very important.”
Although some on the GOP platform committee tried to get specific nondiscrimination references to LGBT people into the platform, Foxx said those efforts were all voted down. That’s for a reason, Foxx said.
“I hate any kind of discrimination,” Foxx said. “I deplore any kind of discrimination. One of our biggest concerns was that we do not do anything that divided us as a party or people. The Democrats constantly divide us into groups. Republicans are more likely to do anything that unites us. Several statements were made to the effect that if you start listing groups, you won’t remember every group.”
On immigration, previous language calling for a fence was replaced with new language calling for a wall. Within secure borders, Foxx said, the platform calls for welcoming immigrants who come here legally.
Journal gets analysis of the GOP platform from a Wake Forest University professor who said Republicans “thought the answer to the Romney thing was to go to the center, and that has been completely reversed.” Someone help me out here, but I thought the problem with the ‘Romney thing’ was he was too far center—that’s why we ended up with four more years of Obama.
The professor adds Republicans have “potential to grow its support among traditional Democrats with the trade message that Trump and the party are espousing.” Key word being “potential”—I’ll believe it when I see it. Problem the way I see it is Trump is –at minimum—-going to start in the same 47 percent hole in which Romney found himself. Trump believes the sheer force of his personality gives him a leg up, but forgive me if I’m skeptical.
