Word: platform
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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...indeed they are written for the true believer, for they admit of no possible party flaw. If there are national problems, those are the fault of the other party, which is castigated at length. As Finley Peter Dunne's fictional commentator Mr. Dooley noted of a practiced platform writer, "Whin he can denounce an 'deplore no longer, he views with alarm an' declares with indignation...
...many planks are crammed into the platform to satisfy different interest groups that Barry Goldwater once dismissed the whole exercise as a "packet of misinformation and lies." Presidential candidates have frequently repudiated their party platforms. In 1864 the Democratic platform called for an immediate end to the Civil War, but Party Nominee George McClellan insisted on continuing the fight against the Confederacy. Franklin Roosevelt piled up record deficits in office despite his 1932 party platform's call for a balanced budget. In 1971 Richard Nixon totally ignored the G.O.P. platform when he imposed wage and price controls and announced...
Democrats, on the other hand, maintain that they have "put the Federal Government back in the business of serving our people." Their platform boasts of the additional spending under Jimmy Carter: "Funding for education up 75% over the Ford budget; Head Start up 73%, basic skills programs up 233%, bilingual education up 113%, Native American education up 124%, summer jobs up 66%, Medicare up 54%, National Health Service Corps up 179%, Women, Infants and Children Program...
This is the basic G.O.P. cure-all for most of the ills that afflict the nation. Say the Republicans: "American families are already paying taxes at higher rates than ever in our history; as a result of Carter's policies, the rates will go even higher." The platform calls for the Kemp-Roth cut of 30% in federal income tax rates over three years, a reduction opposed by the Democrats on the ground that the rich would save more money in taxes than the poor. The Republicans also propose indexing taxes to the inflation rate to eliminate bracket creep...
...Republicans call for a firm stand against Soviet aggression and for higher defense spending. But the Democrats, in a dramatic turn-around from their 1976 platform, which insisted on military budget cuts, also urge the strengthening of U.S. defenses. Both parties, in fact, blame each other for letting Pentagon expenditures lag. Both also favor building the MX missile, though a sizable minority of Democrats were bitterly opposed. The Democrats fault the Republicans for emphasizing the "primacy of power politics" at the cost of American principles. The Democrats also call for more aid to the Third World: "It is unacceptable that...