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too specific

These planks should propose a more general solution.

Kashmir

Restoring American Sovereignty and Leadership > International Relations > Kashmir
We acknowledge that India and Pakistan seek a strong friendship with the United States and encourage both nations to resolve the Kashmir dispute for the Kashmiri people.
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Too specific an issue for a state Republican platform.

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Hamas

Restoring American Sovereignty and Leadership > International Relations > Hamas
Palestinians shall not receive American aid as long as they elect terrorist governments like Hamas.Palestinians shall not receive American aid as long as Hamas is their elected government. We should withdraw all financial support to Hamas and other elected terrorists. We should not reward terrorism by allowing a Palestinian state carved out of historical Israel.

The Israel territory issue is handled elsewhere.

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Federal Tax Reform

Strengthening the Economy > Tax Burden > Federal Tax Reform
The current federal tax code is unacceptable for American taxpayers. Federal tax reform is urgently required, and any reform must support free enterprise, economic growth, and job retention. We support any pragmatic, fair, simple, and obvious tax solutions, including but not limited to a national sales tax and a flat income tax.Federal tax reform is required and any reform should support free enterprise, economic growth, be simple and fair and support job retention in the United States. The Internal Revenue Service is unacceptable to U. S. taxpayers! We urge that the IRS be abolished and the Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution be repealed. We further urge that the personal income tax, alternative minimum tax, inheritance (death) tax, gift tax, capital gains, corporate income tax, and payroll tax be eliminated. We recommend the implementation of a national retail sales tax, with the provision that a two-thirds majority of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate is required to raise the rate. Such reforms will encourage investment and economic growth. Such a sales tax plan must ensure that no one in America pays taxes of any kind on the necessities of life, ensuring opportunity and quality of life for low- and fixed-income Americans. We believe every tax at every level should be a separate and clearly visible billing to the taxpayer, regardless of type of tax, and of calculation method, so we support tax visibility in all forms.

As much as we hate the IRS, it sucks because of the hideous tax code, not because it's inherently evil. This plank invokes the same flawed logic that supports closing the Guantanamo Bay prison: we're ditch an effective system because of a marketing problem.

Mainstream conservatism supports drastic tax code reform, but it is premature to pick a sales tax as the only winner. That excludes other pragmatic conservative approaches like a flat income tax.

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Electronic Privacy

Promoting Individual Freedom and Personal Safety > Individual Freedom > Electronic Privacy
We believe all law-abiding citizensCitizens should be free from government surveillance of their electronic communications except in cases directly involving national security. Except for non-citizens, we furtherwhen authorized by a warrant. We oppose any national ID program, including the Real ID Act and. We oppose the use of Radio Frequency Identification Chips (RFID) on humans except for prisoners.

Electronic communications are just a subset of the things that should be protected from unlawful surveillance. Also, national security is just one of many valid reasons why surveillance may be necessary.

RFID can be a useful way to track prisoners.

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Religious Institutions

Promoting Individual Freedom and Personal Safety > Individual Freedom > Religious Institutions
We urge Congress to sanction any foreign government that persecutes its citizens for their religion.
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There are many reasons to sanction foreign governments. Religious persecution is only one. Congress has sanctioned governments in the past for religious persecution violations.

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Public Higher Education Accountability

Educating Our Children > Public Higher Education Accountability
Tuition deregulation should not preclude the main mission of public colleges and universities: providing affordable, quality higher education to Texas residents. We support a system of accountability in Texas Public universities. We support binding audits by the State Comptroller of all public universities and a complete review of the tuition deregulation law for the purpose of validating whether it is accomplishing its stated goal.

The auditing provision is inappropriate in this education section: strong auditing can benefit all Texas agencies and should not just be directed at public universities.

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Random plank

Restoring American Sovereignty and Leadership > Domestic > Homeland Security
We urge the Homeland Security Department to strengthen intelligence gathering, enhance inter-agency intelligence sharing, protect high profile targets from terrorists, enhance airport and port-of-entry security, use random selection and terrorist profiling in searching individuals, and authorize the Navy and Coast Guard to board and search vessels entering U.S. waters from foreign ports.We urge the Homeland Security Department to strengthen our national intelligence gathering; further enhance inter-agency coordination of intelligence; pass critical information on to local and state agencies; protect constitutional rights of all citizens; provide adequate protection of high profile targets for terrorists; enhance airport and port-of-entry security; use random selection and terrorist profiling in searching individuals; provide for armed guards and pilots on commercial aircraft; authorize the Navy and Coast Guard to board and search vessels entering U.S. waters from foreign ports. We further urge Congress to provide expert training of airline pilots for protection against terrorist attack.
Reason:

Armed guards and pilots on aircraft is a statutory issue.

"Expert" connotes an insurpassible level of experience; airline pilots can and do have some training, but expertise is too much, especially in the limited context of what pilots can accomplish midair. Pilots need to be experts at flying; security needs to be experts at stopping terrorism.

Protecting Constitutional rights is an inherent duty of all government officials, not just Homeland Security.

wordy, misinformed, extreme, pointless

Problems

Show problem parts of the platform:
Platforms promote principles and policies. Planks must not push particular polymorphic political proposals, including bills.about a specific bill (6)
Parts of these were recently implemented.accomplished (11)
Parts of these only promote limited religious viewpoints.advances religious doctrine (8)
Too many positions already overwhelm voters. We cannot add more without a plan to cut ballot complexity.another elected office (6)
The GOP should not be a virulent, anti-homosexual crusade.anti-homosexual crusade (6)
These destroy useful customs or start us down slippery slopes.bad precedent (17)
Cliches belong on the playground, not in serious platforms.cliche (5)
These contradict other planks.contradictory (13)
These simply go too far, overshooting a rational remedy.extreme (25)
These have factual errors.incorrect (11)
These planks advanced contemporary liberal causes or expand government.leftist (22)
These planks require belief in something that is untrue.misinformed (18)
These are not appropriate for a platform document.misuse of platform (6)
These planks have minor punctuation or grammatical errors.needs copyedit (8)
These problems were fixed before the 2008 platform was published.no longer relevant (3)
"Black helicopters" and paranoid conspiracy have no place in our party.paranoid (15)
Parts of these do nothing useful.pointless (61)
These proposals would make our kids stupider.reduces education quality (3)
These planks are internally redundant or repeat other parts of the platform.redundant (41)
These planks should propose a more general solution.too specific (6)
These planks are unclear or unfocused.vague (19)
Puffy prose, hackneyed phrases, and obscure words create pinheaded, unfocused, and inaccessible platforms. Platforms must be simple and direct.wordy (47)

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