'Reprehensible attack on God's word': Oklahoma Republican thrashes Trump's RNC platform
Some Oklahoma Republicans are furious over Donald Trump's demand to remove what they view as Christian values from the Republican Party platform, and they're ready to fight.
In a press release, Sen. Dusty Deevers lashed out at the platform's decisions to make Republicans more "electable" to non-Republicans, the Oklahoman reported.
"The RNC platform committee’s decision to remove from the platform Christian values regarding abortion and marriage is a reprehensible attack on God’s word, pre-born children, and the Christians who have shed blood, sweat, and tears for the party because they believed it would fight for their values," said Deevers. "Nothing is done that is not before the face of God and He will hold accountable those responsible for conspiring to secularize the Republican Party."
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He was particularly angry about the removal of the "Christian definition of marriage" and a provision that has long been in the platform calling for a federal ban on reproductive freedom.
“Contrary to the short-sighted calculations of establishment consultants in the Beltway who have given us nothing but perpetual failure, Republicans will not benefit from abandoning the moral values that make our party attractive to Christians," Deevers said.
"Across the pond, the Tories found out last week what happens when an ostensibly conservative party refuses to conserve anything as they were utterly wiped out in the elections because of demoralized voters staying home or joining right-wing third parties. That is likely our fate if we do not correct our course as Republicans and rediscover our backbones," he continued.
Deevers is one of many Republicans who are frustrated with the new turn of the GOP against decades of promises to strike down Roe v. Wade and stop marriage equality.
Matt Smith of WISN12News Milwaukee caught up with Gail Ruzicka, a platform committee member from Utah, who was incensed with the move.
"I've never seen this happen before. I don't understand why they did it, and I'm extremely disappointed that we do not have any pro-life language," she said about the GOP's new policy that rejects the federal ban on abortion.
"They rolled us. That's what they did."
Texas Republicans battled it out with a small group of women who similarly begged to remove the same provisions, to no avail.
Texas Christian University political scientist Keith Gaddie called the RNC "pageantry" and predicted that the three days will be spent making a "stinging indictment of the last three years."
"The evangelical right is impossibly dug in, and now that the Supreme Court isn't in danger, I think it becomes difficult to get them to the polls," Gaddie said.
He said he can't imagine the conventions mattering to everyday voters.
"What we're waiting for is about two weeks before the election before (people) make their decisions about whether or not they are going to vote," said Gaddie.
Screen captures of the Senate letter to Garland
Screen captures of the Senate letter to Garland